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Alviano, land of mercenary captains and lustful women. The Roman past is rich in agricultural settlements, as proved by the finds of the villas; the medieval past is under the banner of power. Both military and feminine.
The first documented settlement of the present urban nucleus is dated 996 A. D., when the count Offredo who had descended in Italy, in the emperor Ottone the Third's suite, founded the castle of Alviano.
He was the founder of the family that will take the same name of the feud, one of mightiest of the zone. During the struggles between the Papacy and the Empire, the Church, fully aware of the strategic function of the castle, granted the territory of Alviano the prerogative of "Status".
This centre of the Amerino reached the apex of the notoriety and splendour in the days of Bartolomeo d'Alviano, whose name between the 15th and the 16th century was famous all over Europe either for his war exploits, as a mercenary captain, or for his links with the most powerful families of that time. Is to be ascribed to him the reconstruction and the enlargement of the old fortified castle ravaged by the raids of the Amerinians and the Chiaravalles in the 15th cent.. The castle's new feature will be that of a fortress and a mansion at the same time.
In 1654 the castle was bought for the sum of 265,000 scudos by Donna Olimpia Maidalchini-Pamphili, sister-in law to Innocenzo the Tenth. She has still a place in popular imagination because of her dissolute behaviour.

Curiosities

The Epiphany Night, the "Vecchiarella" goes about the streets of the town along with a group of singers.
But the Vecchiarella is not the "Befana". It's a man dressed as a woman, symbol of tradition, of ambiguity, of mockery, of the old social inhibitions of the woman, and of the passage from one to another period of the year.
The Vecchiarella collects offerings which will pay masses for the souls in Purgatory.