This site is dedicated to: ANGELA ZUCCONI, an exceptional woman, who fought with intelligence and intensity to save the environmental, historic and cultural heritage of Lake Bracciano’s territory.
Welcome, I’m Franco Bernardini, I live in Anguillara Sabazia on Lake Bracciano, I’ve decided to embark in the internet in order to show the beauty of my land by means of photographs and text. I’ll guide you to the most interesting and characteristic sites in the territory, rich in archeology from the neolithic, Etruscan, Roman eras, and through the Renaissance, providing you with a panorama of the people who lived around the Lake and left vivid remains of their culture and art.
Visit the archives of
"La Tribuna del lago"
Twenty years of fighting for the conservation and protection of the lakes. Thanks to the dedicated few like Angela Zucconi who in “La Tribuna” denounced real estate speculation, uncovered corruption and illegalities, there still remain pockets of pristine beauty.
Translation: Florita Botts
For my syster Tammy Hess, write... me
ENVIRONMENT
- HISTORY - CULTURE
Bracciano and Martignano lakes are located in a vast and relatively incontaminated area north of Rome. Geological formation of the Sabatino volcanic complex originated in the lower Paleolithic period. As volcanic activity slowed down in the upper Paleolithic era, several lake basins formed. A map of 1692 shows the once extant lakes of Straccia Cappa and Baccano, long since dried out.
Like all volcanic lakes, they slope rapidly from the shore and descend to great depths. This characteristic prevents any abundant growth of acquatic vegetation, providing little natural habitat for the numerous species of water birds passing through our territory.
But the surrounding forests of oak, holm oak, ash, chestnut, are home to a variety of mammals, reptiles and are nesting sites for birds of prey, such as the black kite, kestrel, buzzard, goshawk, some species of nocturnal birds such as the barn owl, long-eared owl, little owl, tawny owl, scops owl.
LAKE MARTIGNANO
Lacking roads and houses, apart from two farms, this small lake has a relatively conserved and interesting natural environment. The scenery is of cultivated fields, meadows, some grazing cattle, and a thick vegetation consisting mainly of wild shrubs, wild olive, juniper, berries and ferns.
These patches of forest descend to the shore on the western side. Unfortunately in the last few years man’s interference has threatened the lake’s delicate ecosystem. Construction work and buildings have permanently altered its wild and bucolic state.
In ancient times the lake’s name was Alseatinus. On the northern shore are remains of an aqueduct built by Augustus in the second century a.D., to supply water to the great fountains of Trastevere in Rome.
The opening of this great work is still visibile from the shore.
LAKE BRACCIANO
The lake has special characteristics which make it a unique case for environmental protection. A great part of its shores are covered with Mediterranean scrub, forests and cultivated fields. An interesting natural environment hosting innumerable biotypes and micro ecosystems.
An important and singular sewage-collecting system was constructed many years ago, encircling the lake and preventing its contamination.
Its conception and administration is due to ACEA [the Rome Water Authority] which considers Lake Bracciano as a reservoir for Rome in case of emergency, and has constructed a giant aqueduct for this purpose.
Prohibition of motor boats on the lake is an environmental-saving and unique aspect, making it a paradise for sailing and windsurfing.
Three towns face the lake: Anguillara, Trevignano and Bracciano.
Bracciano with its historic center built around the Orsini-Odescalchi castle, high above the lake. From 2,000 inhabitants in the mid 1800’s, it grew to nearly 6,000 in the early 1900’s. This abrupt increase in population was due to the establishment of a military base. Recently the urban spread reaches in all directions, occupying green areas and valuable land even around the lake shore, destroying its natural and historic environment.
Anguillara, its historic center on a promontory jutting into the lake. Its economy is mainly based on farming, fishing and manual labor, but in the last few years week-end tourists have drastically transformed it.
In 1872, after the unification of Italy, the name Sabazia was added to it, to distinguish it from Anguillara Veneta. Its picturesque beauty and enchanting sunsets over the lake are threatened by a vast and uncontrolled spread of housing.
Trevignano is the smallest of the three towns facing the lake, but it has managed to cover its beautiful hills with building and housing developments. In 1965 an out-of-touch freakish zoning code envisaged a possible expansion to 18,000 inhabitants, setting builders free to expand wildly. Today the population is around 2,500. But empty houses of all sizes waiting for buyers sprawl across the hills, and more continue to be built.
The lake has a long history, beginning in prehistoric times.
In a bay called “La Marmotta” below the promontory at Anguillara, underwater archeologists discovered remains of an extensive, submerged neolithic village.
Their most important find is an intact canoe hollowed out of a single tree trunk, dating more than 8,000 years ago. It is on exhibit at the Pigorini Museum of Rome.
The lake with its precious archeological remains and its natural beauty is a unifying force for the three towns, but also its many historical monuments of great significance of many centuries. Beginning in Bracciano’s territory, the grandiose Vicarello ancient thermal baths and sanctuary for Apollo, nestled in magnificent nature. From Vicarello the Aqueduct of Trajan, begun in 109 a.D., parts of which still remain, carried drinking water to Trastevere in Rome.
The aqueduct extended for 32 kilometers. Vicarello is an estate of more than one thousand hectars, a jewel of forests, pastures, ancient olive groves, hot springs and thermal baths in use since Roman times and still only partially excavated.
Many archeological remains indicate that the Etruscans lived around the lake. The Etruscan museum in Trevignano exhibits many splendid works of art salvaged from a necropolis on its hills, testimony of their refined and elegant civilization. The necropolis was sacked by tomb robbers and then destroyed forever by rampant and savage real estate speculation.
There are many vestiges of the Romans around the lake. The Villa Claudia is one of the most significant monuments of the Roman period in the area. It is located in the grounds of the Acqua Claudia mineral water bottling factory at Anguillara. Only partially excavated, it is one of the most interesting examples of a private residence during the period of the Roman Republic.
THE VIA CLODIA
The “Mura di Santo Stefano” at Anguillara, of the second century a.D., is considered to be a country house belonging to a rich Roman family.
And all around the area are fragments of Roman times.
Countless monuments of a past rich in history and culture, in a natural environment still intact, to be protected, maintained, an environment to be saved from destruction and neglect, a stupendous landscape, unique, abounding in flora and fauna, culture, history, on rich and productive land, transparent clear water, source of energy and life for thousands of years.
Our wish is that we all understand the inestimable value of this great natural, archeological and cultural patrimony which we have inherited, and that we resolve to protect it from speculation and degradation, to be able to deliver it intact to future generations.
