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The Orsini Baronial Palace in Licenza: from medieval castle to Horatian museum
In the heart of Licenza, a village in the Lucretili Mountains just an hour from Rome, the Orsini Baronial Palace dominates the main square with its 12th-century square keep. The Orsini family governed the valley of the Licenza torrent — the ancient Digentia celebrated by Horace — from the mid-13th century. In the 17th century, Roberto Orsini and his son Mario, Bishop of Tivoli, transformed the fortress into a noble residence, entrusting its decoration to Sabine painter Vincenzo Manenti.
The Manenti frescoes
Two walls of the main hall depict the four elements — Fire, Air, Water, Earth — alternating with the Orsini coat of arms and the SPQR emblem with the Capitoline wolf. A third wall shows the four continents then known to the world, the fourth focused on the “human temperaments”. On the barrel vault, decorated with stucco, the Rape of Europa takes centre stage. In 1632 the Orsini ceded part of the fief to the Borghese family, who took full possession in 1761.
The Horatian Museum
Since 1911 the palace has housed the Museo Civico Oraziano, established to preserve the finds from the nearby Villa of Horace — the fundus in Sabina estate gifted to the poet by Maecenas in 32 BC. Corinthian capitals, stucco work, sculptures, oil lamps and coins: objects documenting the life of the villa up to the late Imperial period. The original layout, devised by archaeologist Angelo Pasqui, was expanded in 1993, two thousand years after the poet's death.
