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Monte Antuni at Castel di Tora: the ghost village on Lake Turano
The medieval village of Monte Antuni is connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus crossing Lake Turano, in the province of Rieti. Surrounded by water and uninhabited for over 70 years, it is one of the most remarkable abandoned villages in Lazio — a place showing traces of the Middle Ages and World War II on its walls.
A fief without a lake, then a lake without a village
The lake did not exist when the fief belonged to the Brancaleoni family. The Turano was a river in a valley, and it was only in 1938, with the construction of a dam, that the artificial basin was created. In 1944, a bombing raid — aimed at the bridge over the lake — hit the village by mistake. Palazzo Del Drago, the village’s most imposing building, was severely damaged. It had 365 windows and frescoed halls. Only the ancient main door remains of the façade, but the bastions and buttresses are still those of old. Restoration work has altered part of the original structure.
The hermitage and the visitors’ path
The hermitage of San Salvatore is perched on a cliff top overlooking the lake. The path is steep, but offers a full view of the ancient walls and building ruins. One can stand there and imagine the village in the Middle Ages, full of life and with no lake around it.
