Palace of the Princes
Carpegna, Palazzo Carpegna.
In the center of the village stands the Palazzo dei Principi di Carpegna Falconieri, designed by the Roman architect Giovanni Antonio De ‘Rossi for Cardinal Gaspare di Carpegna. The palace, which began in 1675 and ended after more than twenty years, is inspired by the fortified villas of Florentine origin and the large stately homes in the Roman countryside. It is still inhabited by the descendants of the millennial family and has remained almost intact after over 300 years, a fire and some strong earthquake (1781).
The Ancient Fountain
Next to the Palace there is a fountain consisting of an ancient sepulcher carved from a limestone monolith, which came to light centuries ago and still undated, which contained inside the body of a mysterious and gigantic warrior with helmet and sword. The lid, rich in ancient carved characters, has been lost over the centuries.
Parish church of San Giovanni Battista
Carpegna, Pieve di San Giovanni Battista
A little more than two kilometers from the town center and on the border with the municipality of Frontino we find the Romanesque church of San Giovanni Battista.
Dating back to the 12th century, the church retains its shape from the Romanesque style even though the renovations carried out over the centuries have profoundly changed the original appearance.
Near the church is the Antica Stamperia Carpegna
for six generations it has been hand-printed on canvas using wooden stencils and the traditional rust color.
Visiting the shop you can admire, on the old wooden shelves over a thousand different matrices, which mark the passage of generations, floral, pictorial and traditional motifs that testify to a popular religiosity such as the classic icon of S. Antonio Abate, protector of pets , once printed on the blankets of oxen. Ancient molds with ornamental patterns and cashmere, instead bring to mind what was the hand print on canvas practiced throughout Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century behind the wake of William Morris and the “Arts and Crafts”.
Borghi Museum
The museum is located inside the deconsecrated church of S. Maria della Misericordia, or della Pietà, in Castacciaro di Carpegna, a small building built at the behest of Cardinal Gaspare di Carpegna towards the end of the 17th century.
Inside, thanks to the symbolic objects, the photographs and the paintings on display, it is possible to discover those peculiarities typical of the rural environment, of the activities and of the peasant life of the fifteen villages of Carpegna, a real visual, tactile “Hyper journey” and sound that, also thanks to a model positioned in the center of the building, allows you to discover the territory of Carpegna.
Inside you can also find a rare fourteenth-century bell and worked stones found during the restoration and coming from the Ancient Rock.
The Cippo di Carpegna
Located about halfway between the inhabited area of Carpegna and the summit of the mountain, the Cippo del Monte Carpegna takes its name from the monument erected in memory of Sandro Italico Mussolini, nephew of Benito Mussolini who died prematurely of leukemia at 20 years of age.
Also in Cippo, the last place open to traffic, there is the Pineta Museum, obtained from an ex-forestry house, where it is possible to observe, listen and touch the “signs” characteristic of the forest that covers Mount Carpegna: audio recordings of the verses of wild animals, distinctive signs of the animals that populate the forest, stratigraphy of plants and many other small curiosities.
In this place you can find a work by the local artist Francesco Maria Tigli, a commemorative monument to Marco Pantani, who often trained on these roads before his great endeavors in stage races.
