Italy, Albano Laziale

Albano Laziale is located along the Via Appia, and owes its name to the famous city of Alba Longa, the mythical sacred city of Alba, florid mother of Rome in 1000 BC. In its coat of arms he one can see a white sow (Alba) suckling thirty pigs (thirty cities of the Latin League) under an ancient oak tree on the edge of the lake and of Mount Albano, where Jupiter Laziale had his headquarters and his most important temple. The story is also told in Virgil's Aeneid. From the fifth century BC, with Roman control, the area became enriched with temples and shrines, especially in Lucus Ferentinae, the sacred place where the federation of the Latin League met. For its natural and logistic advantages, Albano was chosen by many illustrious men of Rome for their villas, such as Pompey the Great, in the Roman Republic, and the emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Domitian, Septimius Severus (Settimio Severo). The asset of the topographic structure of Albano resulted in the formation of the camp of the Second Parthian Legion, 6,000 soldiers with families and service personnel, required by Emperor Septimius Severus in the II century AD. With Christianity, Albano became a bishopric and the city began a new urban life with the construction of numerous churches, convents, monasteries and rural and Christian communities. Many pilgrims from all over Europe came here to venerate the relics of saints and martyrs. In the Middle Ages, to protect themselves from the Barbarian invasions, the city became fortified, under the rule of the Savelli family who built a castle, a baronial mansion, defensive walls and towers. Albano was among the first municipalities in Lazio to enjoy a certain freedom as a commune. In the sixteenth century the city enjoyed a revival with the construction of new squares, streets and numerous palaces of the new Roman patricians. In 1816 it became a possession of the Apostolic Chamber and became the capital of Comarca until the independence of Italy. In the nineteenth century, Albano was visited by illustrious tourists like Goethe, Stendhal, Gogol, D'Annunzio.