A testamentary story of some Roman families about the so-called “Castellaccio” of Monteroni on the Via
Aurelia between the 16th and 17th centuries: working hypotheses
The Monteroni farmhouse has quite anomalous architectural features, compared to those of the other
staging posts on the Via Aurelia. Since the seventeenth century it has served as a reception function in
spite of the external image of a fortress, highlighted by the four corner crenelated towers. The archival
research revealed testamentary events about the Cesi and Anguillara families, focused on the figure of
Porzia dell’Anguillara and her two marriages, which would seem to refer the building to a much older
history.
A hypothesis is that the current appearance of the building is due to Renzo di Ceri, Porzia’s
grandfather, man of arms and defensive fortifications builder, lived at the turn of the sixteenth century.
The typological comparison would suggest an architectural model borrowed from the nearby castle of
Statua, part of a medieval coastal defence and control system, to which perhaps even the Castellaccio belonged in its embryonic stage.