In the Lepini Mountains south of Rome, the town first appears in a document of 1077, when the Lateran canons leased the fief to the de Ceccano family. In the castle that was theirs, enlarged over the centuries by the Pecci, Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci was born, the future Pope Leo XIII: his pontificate filled Carpineto with churches, statues and public fountains, and in 1901 he had a commemorative cross raised on the summit of Monte Capreo, which towers over the houses. The official name has carried the word Romano only since 1872.
At the end of the sixteenth century the fief passed to Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, and his sister Olimpia made it her own «bello stato», adding to it Montelanico, Gorga, Gavignano and Maenza: from that duchy come the finest works, among them Caravaggio's Saint Francis in Meditation, kept for centuries in the sacristy of the church of San Pietro Apostolo. The mountain around it is hollow: with two hundred and sixty-four recorded caves Carpineto has more cavities than any other town in Lazio, and in the local dialect the sinkholes are called ousi.
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 28 August, with the Palio della Carriera
Carpineto Romano celebrates Saint Augustine on 28 August, in the convent dedicated to him. The Palio della Carriera re-enacts in costume the town's period of greatest splendour, alongside talks, film screenings and theatrical performances.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Carpineto Romano, but an easy day trip away.
