Castel Madama has 7,328 inhabitants on the spurs of the Prenestini mountains, looking straight down on the valley of the Aniene. The Madama of the name is Margaret of Austria, daughter of the emperor Charles V: she entered the fief in 1538, and the town has been called that ever since. But on the coat of arms another word is written, an older one: Empulum, the name of the place before she came — and one of the four quarters is still called Empolitano.
Every July the town goes back to the sixteenth century with the palio of Madama Margarita: processions in period dress from the Orsini castle, a Renaissance dinner, and then the contest on horseback, played out in three trials — the joust of the Saracen, the game of the little flags and the final race. The best jockey wins the sword of Charles V, that is, of Margaret's father. Castel Madama is also the seat of an università agraria: a body that administers the village's common property, the direct heir of the medieval institutions of peasant self-government.
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📅 Every year, on 9 May; the Palio Madama Margarita recalls Margaret of Austria's 1538 entry
Castel Madama celebrates Saint Michael the Archangel on 9 May, in the church dedicated to him. The Palio Madama Margarita d'Austria recalls the 1538 entry of Margaret of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles V, into the fiefdom that later took her name.
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 Castel Madama, but an easy day trip away.
