The first mention is of 1085, in the register of Subiaco: the Castrum Sancti Viti is among the lands the lord of Paliano gave to the monastery. It had been born of a flight: when the Saracens ravaged this country in the ninth century, the survivors withdrew onto the mountain and sheltered in its natural cavities, and with the help of the Benedictine monks they rebuilt the settlement around a fortress on the top of the cliff — it was probably the monks who gave it the name of Saint Vitus. The abbey held it until 1180, then came the Colonna, who enlarged the castle; and in 1575 it passed to the Theodoli, a Roman family originally from Forlì, who own that castle still. Gerolamo Theodoli, bishop of Cadiz, paid twenty thousand Roman scudi for the fief.
The town's arms are made of its masters' devices: Saint Vitus with his dog, the palm and the Gospel; beside him the silver column of the Colonna; and the red field of the Theodoli, surmounted by a sun with sixteen rays that may stand for eternity or may be the rayed wheel of that same family. From 1640 cardinal Mario Theodoli had a new quarter laid out, which still carries his name, Borgo Mario Theodoli; he died in 1650, before the quarter and the church of Santi Sebastiano e Rocco were finished, and the Carmelite convent beside them is today the town hall. By royal decree of the sixteenth of May 1872 San Vito became San Vito Romano. Two of the old gates are still standing, that of the Hospital and that of the Bridge, named after the drawbridge over the Cavoni gully. And on the second of February, for Saint Blaise, the town hands out doughnuts flavoured with anise.
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📅 Every year, on 15 June or the nearest Sunday, with the traditional flower carpet
San Vito Romano celebrates Saint Vitus on 15 June or the nearest Sunday, with the traditional flower-petal carpet and procession.
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