Anguillara Sabazia is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

Metropolitan City of Rome Metropolitan City of Rome Capital () is an area of local government at the level of metropolitan city in the Lazio region of Italy. It comprises the territory of the city of Rome and 120 other ''comuni'' (: ''comune'') in the hinterland of the c ...

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

central Italy Central Italy ( or ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region with code ITI, and a European Parliament constituency. It has 11,704,312 inhabita ...

, around northwest of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. It nestles on a small cape on the coast of

Lake Bracciano Lake Bracciano () is a lake of volcanic origin in the Italian region of Lazio, northwest of Rome. It is the second largest lake in the region (second only to Lake Bolsena) and one of the major lakes of Italy. It has a circular perimeter of appr ...

; its medieval center and its beach make it a popular destination for tourists. About east of the town lies the small, volcanic

Lake Martignano Lake Martignano (Italian: Lago di Martignano) is a small lake in Lazio, Italy north-north-west of Rome, in an extinct crater or maar. Administratively its coast is divided amongst the municipalities of Rome, Anguillara Sabazia and Campagnano di ...

, also popular with tourists. The two lakes and the surrounding area have been declared a Regional Park and are under a strict naturalistic control. Nearby at Mura di Santo Stefano about 3 km south of Lake Bracciano lie the remarkable remains of a great ancient Roman villa.

Roman villa of Mura di Santo Stefano

It was located along the

Via Clodia The Via Clodia was an ancient high road of Italy. Situated between the Via Cassia and the Via Aurelia, it is different from them notably in that the latter was designed primarily for military long-haul, irrespective of settlements they met, but ...

and was built at the end of the 2nd century AD, probably on an earlier ''

villa rustica Villa rustica () was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a farmhouse or villa set in the countryside and with an agricultural section, which applies to the vast majority of Roman villas. In some cases they were at the centre of a large ...

'' of the 1st century. The complex was a luxury retreat, possibly the residential part of a ''

latifundium A ''latifundium'' (Latin: ''latus'', "spacious", and ''fundus'', "farm", "estate") was originally the term used by ancient Romans for great landed estates specialising in agriculture destined for sale: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were charac ...

''. There is evidence for continuing activity till the 3d or early 4th century. The remains of the three-story building in cement with brick cladding are still preserved to about 18 m in height. There are arched openings towards the outside framed by pillars of yellow and red bricks. Inside the building has a central courtyard with pillars and three floors with cross vaults which have now disappeared. It was lavishly decorated with 19 types of marble. The covered side corridors retain traces of marble cladding on the walls. A cistern is also preserved nearby.

Popular culture

The ''

Everybody Loves Raymond ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is an American television sitcom created by Philip Rosenthal that aired on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes spanning nine seasons. It was produced by Where's Lunch and Wor ...

'' fifth season two-part episode "Italy" was filmed in Anguillara Sabazia.
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References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities and towns in Lazio Roman villas in Italy