Palazzo Salviati

This church, dedicated to San Vito, was probably destroyed in the twelfth century, when the body of San Marco Pope kept there was transferred to the Basilica of San Marco in Palazzo Venezia (RM) where it still rests today. The houses and public and private farms were near the two buildings in the shape of concentric rings corresponding to the profile lines of the hill. The private houses adjacent to the last ring of growth had the function of a wall, with a few windows outwards, usually in the shape of a slit. The economic growth of the village generated the construction of rings lower and lower than the primitive structure. A modern renovation took place in the 16th century in two phases by Donna Costanza Conti and later by her son, Cardinal Antonio Maria Salviati. Coming from a period of major development between 1100 and 1200, the Castrum di Giulianello went from being a special castle of the Church to a possession of the Counts of Segni. Owners until 1500 gave it as a dowry to Donna Costanza Conti for her marriage to the Florentine nobleman Lorenzo Salviati. Thanks to the help of the powerful family, Donna Costanza had the Castrum Juliani restored, now reduced to a country estate. The noblewoman built the fortification walls and the first family residence, the church, the houses for the peasants and productive buildings, including the wheat mill. The cardinal perfected and completed the village by building the new baronial palace, completing the walls and building the new entrance door. Some buildings adorned with a tuff slab at the entrance are still visible on which stands the letter “S” followed by a Roman number to identify the individual properties for recording the income. The building has a quadrangular plan with an internal courtyard with arcades on the main side and corner towers. The structure incorporates remains of tufa walls according to the arrangement on parallel rows from the Middle Ages (12th – 14th century) still visible under the plaster along the northern and eastern sides of the building. The façade is moved by a central forepart with an ashlar door and a loggia with three arches which amplifies the chiaroscuro effects. Architectural elements in tuff in contrast with the remaining plastered surface create a characteristic chromatic effect that seems to recall the Tuscan architecture of the 16th century. During the renovation of the court square in the early 2000s, it was decided to enhance the dense network of underground caves by covering the road pavement with cobblestones and reproducing the map of the caves through a white paving that traces their shapes.