Roccantica

Altitude 457 mt.
Population: 550

Useful numbers:

• comune............. 0765 63724
• pro loco............. 0765 63682 
• post office.......... 0765 63032
• pharmacy........... 0765 63591

Brief historical background of Roccantica:
Documented for the first time in 792 AD as Fundus Antiquum, when a portion of the church of St Valentino was donated by Palombo to Farfa Abbey. In 840 Fundus came entirely into the posession of the Abbey. The village, founded as a response to the Saracen invasions of 864 onwards, was walled in 966 and the name changed to Fundo in Rocca, or Roccha de Antiquo.

During the struggle for the Papacy between Benedetto X and Niccolò II, Rocca took the side of the latter and was besieged by the Crescenzi family, who supported Benedetto. The siege was lifted by Roberto d'Altavilla (the Guiscard) ally of Niccolò II, and the Pope rewarded the twelve surviving "roccolani" with the infeudation of the village (papal record of 14 may 1060). These privileges, reconfirmed by later Popes down the centuries, provided Rocca de Antiquo with various exemptions and immunites, including tax exemptions.

From the tenth century until the twelfth the church of St. Valentino ruled most of the territory, despite attempts by neighbouring lords and guilds to appropriate parts of it. Finally in 1326 the guild of craftsmen obtianed a written statute from the rector of the Sabina, Roberto di Albarupe, later extended in 1327,1336,1446.

In 1427 1415 Pope Giovanni XXIII (Baldassarre Cossa, also known as the Antipope) gave the village and surrounding land to Francesco Orsini The Orsinis remained in posession until 1698), when Roccantica returned to the Holy See, becoming fully absorbed into the Papal States.

In the 1860 plebiscite for the riunification of Italy, Roccantica returned 152 "yes" votes and 19 abstentions from a total of 171 registered voters.

Thanks to the Comune of Roccantica for the text.
Translated by Kate Prandy