Palestrina (Latium)

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Palestrina
coat of arms
Palestrina (Italy)
Palestrina
Country Italy
region Lazio
Metropolitan city Rome  (RM)
Coordinates 41 ° 50 '  N , 12 ° 54'  E Coordinates: 41 ° 50 '20 "  N , 12 ° 53' 33"  E
height 450  m slm
surface 46 km²
Residents 22,451 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 488 inhabitants / km²
Factions Carchitti, Valvarino
Post Code 00036 (Palestrina, Valvarino), 00030 (Carchitti)
prefix 06
ISTAT number 058074
Popular name Palestrinesi or Prenestini
Patron saint Sant'Agapito martire
Website www.comune.palestrina.rm.it
Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini

Palestrina (the ancient Praeneste ) is an Italian city in the metropolitan city of Rome in the Lazio region with 22,451 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019). It is the seat of a suburbicarian diocese with a cathedral and a seminary.

Cathedral of Sant'Agapito

geography

Location of Palestrina in the province of Rome

Palestrina is located 37 km east of Rome and 52 km west of Frosinone in terraces on the steep Monte Ginestro , a mountain on the edge of the Monti Prenestini, above the Sacco valley . When the visibility is good, it offers a view of the Alban Mountains and as far as Rome and the sea.

One has a good view of Palestrina from the ancient Arx Praenestina above the city , today Castel San Pietro Romano , where a castle was built around 980, which later belonged to the Colonna .

The districts of Carchitti and Valvarino belong to the municipality.

The neighboring municipalities are Artena , Castel San Pietro Romano , Cave , Gallicano nel Lazio , Labico , Rocca di Cave , Rocca Priora , Rome , San Cesareo , Valmontone , Zagarolo .

Palestrina is a member of the Comunità Montana dei Castelli Romani e Prenestini .

traffic

Palestrina has been linked to Rome by the Via Prenestina since ancient times . From the Middle Ages, however, the Via Casilina , today Strada Statale 6 , became the more important access road. The nearest exit to the A1 Autostrada del Sole is 9 km from Valmontone .

The nearest train station is Zagarolo Station on the Rome – Cassino – Naples line , 7 km away. The train station in the Valvarino district was closed in 1990 because of its unfavorable location and subsequently largely dismantled.

Engraving (43 × 33 cm) by Agapito Bernardini with a bird's eye view of Palestrina, ca.1670
View of the Praeneste sanctuary after a reconstruction by Pietro da Cortona .

history

For the ancient history of Palestrina see Praeneste .

In the Middle Ages, Palestrina 728, located on the terraces of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia , was mentioned again for the first time when it came to the Ducat Rome with the donation of Sutri . In 1043 he came to the powerful Roman noble family of Colonna . They built a castle on top of the ancient terrace complex from the remains of the uppermost temple building with its characteristic semicircular courtyard, the structure of which is ancient, and which was rebuilt around 1500 into the Palazzo Colonna Barberini , which still exists today . Today the Nile mosaic from Palestrina is located in the palazzo . In 1297 Pope Boniface VIII , who was enemies of the Colonna, had the city destroyed. This fate was repeated in 1437 on the orders of Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi . In 1630 Francesco Colonna sold the city to Carlo Barberini, brother of Pope Urban VIII, for 775,000 Scudi . In 1870 Palestrina and the Papal States became part of the Kingdom of Italy .

During World War II, Palestrina was bombed by the Allies. This event was the occasion to uncover the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia .

Population development

year 1881 1901 1921 1936 1951 1971 1991 2001 2008
Residents 6.158 7,074 7,457 8,398 9.221 11,533 15,802 17,234 20,828

Source: ISTAT

politics

Antonio Tedeschi has held the position of mayor as State Commissioner since March 18, 2019. In the local elections on June 9, 2019, Mario Moretti (Centro Destra) was elected as the new mayor.

Town twinning

Diocese

Palestrina is the seat of a suburbicarian diocese ; the list of bishops of Palestrina includes all the bishops of the city; five of them later became Pope. One of them, Cardinal Guarin of Palestrina (c. 1080–1155), was canonized.

Attractions

Monument to Pierluigi da Palestrina
  • The old town lies on the huge terraces of the sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia , which was partially exposed after the Second World War.
  • The Palazzo Barberini-Colonna was built on the top of the sanctuary. Today it houses the National Archaeological Museum, where you can see the famous Nile mosaic , among other things .
  • A museum was also set up in the house where Pierluigi da Palestrina was born
  • In the originally Romanesque cathedral Sant'Agapito there is a copy of the Pietà di Palestrina by Michelangelo . The original is in Florence today .

People connected to Palestrina

Palestrina is the hometown of the famous musician Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and the sculptor Stefano Maderno .

The brothers Heinrich and Thomas Mann spent the summers of 1895 and 1897 in Palestrina. Heinrich Mann set a monument to the city with his novel Die kleine Stadt . In the outline of his life , Thomas Mann describes how he started writing his first novel Buddenbrooks in Palestrina . In Thomas Mann's late novel Doctor Faustus , Palestrina is the setting for a key scene: the main character's encounter with the devil. In 1953, Thomas Mann told the painter Fabius von Gugel about a vision he had in the stone hall in Palestrina in 1895 when he was suddenly confronted with an apparition of the devil. According to Gugel, Mann described that "... in the afternoon heat, all of a sudden, sitting on the black sofa, saw a stranger who he knew was none other than the devil". (Quoted from Peter de Mendelssohn : Der Zauberer . Frankfurt / Main 1975, p. 293).

literature

  • Christoph Henning: Lazio. The land around Rome. With walks in the Eternal City (= DuMont art travel guide ). 3rd, updated edition. DuMont, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-7701-6031-2 .
  • Furio Fasolo, Giorgio Gullini: Il Santuario della Fortuna Primigenia a Palestrina. 2 volumes. Istituto di Archeologia, Rome 1953, on the mosaic with the Nile landscape.
  • Bernard Andreae : Nile landscapes. In: Bernard Andreae: Antique picture mosaics. von Zabern, Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-8053-3156-8 , pp. 78-109, with the older literature.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Colonna Castle @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.castelsanpietroromano.net
  3. ↑ www.lestradeferrate.it accessed on March 10, 2016 (Italian)
  4. ↑ From: JM Suares: Praenestes antiquae libri duo. Rome 1655
  5. ^ Palazzo Barberini in Palestrina
  6. ↑ See Thomas Mann - A Life in Pictures , Artemis & Winkler 1994, p. 81.

Web links

Commons : Palestrina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

  • Most of the old town consists of stairs

  • Alley in Palestrina