Arcinazzo Romano

Until a little over a century ago Arcinazzo Romano was called Ponza, and in the village they still call it that. The first time the place appears in a document is in 720, when the Massa Pontiana, that is, this territory, was ceded to the titulus of Sant'Eustachio in Rome. The name was changed by kings: in 1872 a decree of Victor Emmanuel II turned Ponza into the longer Ponza d'Arcinazzo, and in 1891 another decree got rid of Ponza altogether. What Arcinazzo means, though, is not clear: it would come from Arcinia, a concubine of the emperor Claudius who had a villa here, or from one Narcio, a patrician of Subiaco, who in the fourth century gave pope Damasus I an arx at the foot of Monte Altuino. The inhabitants, in any case, are arcinazzesi.

An imperial villa, in fact, is here, and it is Trajan's: his hunting residence, five hectares on three terraces, with marbles, paintings and stuccoes that say how sumptuous its halls were. The finds from the digs are in the town Antiquarium, inside the archaeological area. For the rest the village belonged for a long time to the abbey of Subiaco: in 1176 pope Alexander III granted it Ponza together with Affile, and the fief stayed with the monks until 1735, when it passed to the Apostolic Chamber. Today the busiest part is the Altipiani di Arcinazzo, which the comune shares with Trevi nel Lazio and with Piglio; the patron is Saint George, kept twice a year, on 23 April and 23 August.