Graffignano

The old village stands on the top of a small crag, gathered tight around the castle of the Baglioni, and the part inside the walls is still called the Di Dentro, the Inside. The name of the comune, Carfinianum, suggests the land belonged to a Roman owner, a certain Carfinius. The Baglioni quarrelled among themselves for two centuries, so much so that one pope went as far as confiscating the fief and another gave it back in 1531; and in 1546 the dispute with the neighbouring community of Civitella d'Agliano over a piece of the border was settled too. That piece of ground is still called La Litigata, the quarrel, five hundred years after the quarrel ended.

At the start of the sixteen hundreds the fief passed to countess Domitilla Cesi, of the family of that Federico Cesi who founded the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome: it was she who brought here the devotion to san Filippo Neri, today co-patron together with san Martino, and who instituted the feast of the Vergine Addolorata. Later the castle belonged to the Borromeo — cardinal Federico is among its lords — and in 1741 the fief was raised to a principality. In the eighteen hundreds the population grew fast: there was work, and standing on the border of the Papal State the village was a safe refuge for those who would not accept the new Kingdom of Italy. The comune still has two università agrarie, at Graffignano and at Sipicciano: bodies that administer the property held in common, heirs of medieval institutions of agrarian self-government. In the arms is san Martino on horseback, cutting his cloak in two.