Historical notices
The tradition says that Montecastrilli draws its name from the "castra" (encampments) planted (so they say) by Hannibal's army marching versus Rome. The recent origin of the town, which still retains the medieval features of a fortified hamlet, should go back to a period between the end of the 10th and the first half of the 11th cent.
Cultural sights
The Parish Church of San Nicolò, restructured and enlarged at the beginning of the 18th cent., is made up of six chapels in baroque style. It contains a beautiful wooden Crucifix of the 15th cent., an icon of the Virgin "Refugium Peccatorum" (16th cent.), a canvas by Bartolomeo Poliziano depicting St. Anthony and St. Lucy, a Virgin of the Rosary (1606) by Archiatra Ricci da Urbino. The Church of Santa Chiara (17th cent.) is annexed to the monastery of the Clarisses, founded in 1649. It preserves an 18th cent. canvas of Our Lady of the Assumption enclosed in a splendid frame in Roman plaster.
Near Castel dell'Aquila is the imposing Fortecesare Palace, nowadays unfortunately in ruins, whose construction is ascribed to Cesare Borgia. In the surroundings of the same hamlet is "Quercus frainetto", this is the name of the oak growing in the territory of Montecastrilli which gives the name to the hamlet of Farnetta. It's worth considering because it's a splendid oak, with leaves 20 centimetres long. It's on heavy decrease because of its slow growth., quite an interesting Romanesque church of the 11th cent., with a barrel vault and a semicircular apse obtained cutting in half a cylindrical Roman tomb.
In the external walls, fragments, probably from a Roman villa, are inserted.
Among the hamlets of the Montecastrilli area, Quadrelli is worth visiting.
Environmental beauties
"Quercus frainetto", this is the name of the oak growing in the territory of Montecastrilli which gives the name to the hamlet of Farnetta. It's worth considering because it's a splendid oak, with leaves 20 centimetres long. It's on heavy decrease because of its slow growth.
