Allumiere and Farnesiana

Allumiere

Allumiere is a small town located on the Tolfa Mountains, 522 meters above sea level. The territory, inhabited since the Paleolithic, has been populated, repeatedly, during the Copper Age, the Bronze Age and, by Etruscans, in the Archaic. In Roman times the countryside was controlled and utilized by the system of villae rusticae. A genuine town was founded in the late 16th c., after the discovery of the mines of alum and the fall of Constantinople, which interrupted the supply of that mineral from the East. The town of Allumiere corresponds to what was the largest storage facility and material processing plant. In the historic center is the Allumiere’s archaeological, natural, mineralogical museum, in the building (16th c.) that housed the mines’ administration. In the same square stands the Parish Church of St. Mary’s Assumption: it was built in 1608 above a small chapel which was used by mine workers. Initially the church was formed by a single nave: in 1857 two side naves were added.

Farnesiana

Borgo della Farnesiana is a settlement built to service the mining industry: today a semi-abandoned hamlet in the Municipality of Allumiere. The village, founded by Pope Paul III Farnese, has not changed over time: it included a mill, an oven, a farm and a Neo-Gothic Church dedicated the Immaculata. Likewise isolated is the Baroque Sanctuary of Our Lady of Cibona: it was built in the 17th c. next to the eponymous alum quarry, to serve the workers.

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