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Piazza della Veduta in Civitella di Licenza: where the village opens onto the Lucretili Mountains
Piazza della Veduta is your first glimpse of Civitella di Licenza as you arrive in the village. More than a square, it is a small natural viewpoint, offering a sweeping vista over the Lucretili Mountains Regional Park, the profile of Monte Pellecchia (1,368 m) dominating the horizon. We are less than an hour from Rome, in the smallest hamlet of Licenza: a handful of hilltop houses that were once a municipality in their own right.
A village born as a fortress
Civitella was originally a military stronghold around the 10th century, strategically linked to the Abbey of Farfa. In a document from 1275, the castle already appears among the holdings of the Orsini family, who held it for centuries before ceding it to the Borghese family in the 17th century. The square is right where the entrance to this fortified core once stood.
The Pavanello fountain and the church of 1215
At the centre of the square stands a fountain from 1902, into which water from the Pavanello spring flows. The water remains cool even in summertime. A few steps away is the Church of Saints Philip and James, already mentioned in an Orsini document from 1215. The bell tower has a distinctive feature: a Roman stone with an epigraphic inscription built into the structure.
