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Roccagiovine: The Village of the Goddess Vacuna and Horace in the Monti Lucretili
Horace wrote his letters "behind the ruined temple of Vacuna". The temple was here, in Roccagiovine, a village of 245 inhabitants 520 metres above sea level in the Monti Lucretili Park. Vacuna was a Sabine goddess associated with rest after fieldwork — the Romans celebrated her in December with the Vacunalia. Almost nothing remains of the temple, however one column ended up as the jamb of a castle window, and an inscription in the walls records the restoration paid for by Emperor Vespasian. In Piazza Vacuna the fountain from 1857 still bears the inscription: "The clear spring that greets the ruins of Vacuna's temple".
The Castle and the Village
The Baronial Castle dates back to 1280, and was built on the remains of the Roman temple. The Orsini family owned it from 1315 to 1632, then it passed on to the Borghese family and finally to the Del Gallo marquises, who still own it. The medieval village developed around the castle, consisting of stone lanes and steep stairways. The Church of San Nicola di Bari (St Nicholas of Bari) houses 17th-century frescoes and an altarpiece from the school of Perugino, the Madonna dei Ronci (Our Lady of the Woods).
Horace and the Nymphaeum
The villa where the poet lived from 33 BC — a gift from Maecenas — is located just outside the village, between Roccagiovine and Licenza.The Nymphaeum of the Orsini is on the same road, a monumental 15th-century fountain that channels the waters of the ancient Fons Bandusiae of which Horace sang the praises.
