Olives, citrus fruits, vegetables and fruit are grown on the fertile banks of Lake Bracciano in the southern folds of the Monti Sabatini. Trevignano Romano is located on a small peninsula occupied by a ruined castle built by the Orsini family. The town hall contains an archaeological museum with treasures from an Etruscan-Roman necropolis. The building on which the church of Santa Caterina is built also dates from Roman times, while the Chiesa dell’Assunta houses a 16th-c. fresco which may be by Pellegrino da Modena.
The town is built on a basalt cliff, the village lies at one end of a small bay, formed by the secondary crater of an extinct volcano. Thanks to its south-facing position and the presence of thermal waters, the place has always attracted human habitation. Indeed, prehistoric archaeology has brought to light the existence of now-submerged lakeside villages built on stakes, dating back to the Bronze Age. Evidence of Trevignano's former importance as an Etruscan settlement are the many necropolises which stretch for some three kilometres along the hills behind the present-day village and which have yielded interesting finds, now housed in the municipal museum of archaeology. In 387 BC with the conquest of Veio and Caere the Sabatine region came under the control of the Romans who built many villas there. The one most closely linked to the history of Trevignano is the residence of the Gens Trebonia who, some say, decided to change the name of Sabate or Sabazia to Trebonianum, which is the origin of modern Trevignano.
Steeped in history, Trevignano today welcomes the visitor with its delightful medieval quarter and a tree-lined lakeside promenade well endowed with places to try the local specialities in a magical setting created by the freshwater of the lake and its limpid hues |
