Top 7 Natural Monuments around Montebuono

Cottanello gives its name to a typical pink stone, known as "Cottanello marble", which in geological terms can be defined as a reddish or pinkish marly limestone belonging to the Scaglia Rossa Formation. This stone was used especially between the 17th and 18th centuries by Bernini and Borromini to decorate many churches in Rome (including San Pietro, Sant'Agnese in Agone, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale). The main quarry is located about 1.5 km from the town, and its activity continued until the 1970s. Cottanello marble was also used in Roman times, in various locations and in monuments from different eras (e.g. Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, Lucus Feroniae). Only one sculpture made of Cottanello is known, a large labrum, a basin with a pedestal that must have furnished a senatorial or imperial residence. In the Roman villa of Cottanello, stone is used in various ways: in its different more or less veined qualities, it is in fact used for the cubilia of wall coverings, for some thresholds, for the bases of porticoes, pavings and steps, for the mosaic tiles and for some architectural elements currently located in the peristyle, namely a shaft, two Tuscan capitals and a Doric capital. In 1722, the two little lions of Venice were created and placed in the little square that takes their name, or Piazzetta dei Leoncini, located near Piazza San Marco.

The remains of the ancient Roman city, crossed by the Via Flaminia and lapped by a bend of the Tiber, are set in a natural landscape of remarkable beauty, a perfect synthesis of archeology and nature with a centuries-old history.

Mandatory destination at least once a year!

An unfinished column is still visible

This splendid archaeological park from the Roman era can be visited all year round for free. The park extends for 36 hectares from the nearby bend of the Tiber to under the modern Otricoli. Right on the Tiber river there are still the remains of the used Oil Port active until the 16th century. The remains of what were once thermal baths, amphitheaters and villas are perfectly preserved and extraordinarily integrated into the natural context of the area.

It seems that San Cataldo has never actually passed through these places. Yet the legends about the saint are not lacking. It is said that the rock that leads from the hermitage to the valley floor is full of hollows and fissures, marks of the elbows and feet of the saint who went to the stream every day to wash himself. Legends aside, the hermitage is a wonderful example of the union between human architecture and nature. The interior of the chapel and its ancient Byzantine fresco can be visited only during FAI days.

Listed among the natural monuments of the Lazio region, the Hermitage of San Cataldo is a small sanctuary carved into the granite rock of the mountains. If the exterior appears very impressive, the interior with its large frescoes is no exception.

One of the few saints who is also highly valued outside of Christianity is San Francesco, known in the German-speaking world as Francis of Assisi. Francis was born in Assisi in 1181/82 and died as early as 1226. In his youth, the son of wealthy parents, he was more of a bon vivant, but later he turned to Christ. In the half-ruined little church of San Damiano, on the hillside outside the city walls of Assisi, he was praying one day and heard the voice of Christ coming down from the cross, urging him to “rebuild his church”. At first he took this request literally and restored the church building, later he came to realize that this is primarily about the church as the community of believers. Francis became a role model for many people, they joined him and the "Order of the Friars Minor" (Ordo Fratrum Minorum) of Francis of Assisi came into being. Today in the broad Franciscan religious family there are three male branches: the Franciscans, the Minorites and the Capuchins; and two females: the Franciscans and the Poor Clares. In addition, there is the "Third" or "Secular" order, which women and men who do not take the classic vows of the order (poverty, chastity and obedience) and continue to live in their family and their profession can join.