Palazzo Savelli

Palazzo Savelli in Rocca Priora stands on the medieval castrum of the Annibaldi and was later transformed into a baronial residence by the Savelli. Rebuilt in 1880 to a design by Francesco Vespignani, the palace occupies the upper edge of the borgo above the Pontine Plain.

Why it matters

The building preserves Rocca Priora's changing political history. The Annibaldi held the medieval castrum; the Savelli, who controlled the town from the late fourteenth into the seventeenth century, turned the stronghold into a baronial residence with administrative functions. When the older palace fell into disuse, the municipality rebuilt it in 1880 in a fifteenth-century style to a design by Francesco Vespignani. The palace stands beside the church of Santa Maria Assunta and overlooks the plain from Rome toward Palestrina.

What to notice

The double-ramp staircase is the theatrical gesture of the 1880 reconstruction, a nineteenth-century interpretation of a Quattrocento baronial palace. The exterior combines a brick curtain with peperino stone. Interior vault ribs are cut from local grey-brown tuff, and traces of earlier structures survive in the masonry, recalling the Savelli residence and the Annibaldi castrum beneath it. The palace's position also defines the town's outlook across the plain.

Context and history

After the destruction of Tusculum in 1191, the castle of Rocca Priora passed to the Annibaldi; documentary sources record their lordship by the mid-thirteenth century. In 1382 the castle and lands passed to the Savelli, who held the fief through the papal reconquest of 1436 and its restoration to them in 1447. The Savelli raised a baronial residence on the castle's structures, incorporating medieval masonry. By the nineteenth century the old building stood abandoned. In 1880 the municipality commissioned Francesco Vespignani to rebuild it in revival style for civic use.