Caves of Castro

Grotte di Castro - Grotte di Castro is a small village in the province of Viterbo which has its origins in the Etruscan civilization. The town is famous for agriculture and especially for the cultivation of potatoes, for this reason it has been under the dominion of the Papal State for many years, in fact every small farmer gave his piece of land to the Church, this in the past has penalized the village, but today there are still many small farmers who know how to do their job well.

The town first developed around the churches of San Giovanni and San Pietro, then over time new areas were built. The sanctuary of the Madonna del Suffragio, to which the town is strongly devoted, is a minor basilica, important for the statue of the Madonna, transported from Rome to Grotte di Castro at the behest of a Capuchin father. The Basilica is built on the church of San Giovanni Battista which was transformed and enriched precisely to house the statue of the Madonna; here we find a reliquary of the Holy Cross with a silver chalice donated by Pope Pius II; there are also valuable paintings and the beautiful Gloria del De Zettis that encloses the statue. An important site to visit is the Necropolis of Pianezze, one of the most important, but not the only one in the town, a rock necropolis with chamber tombs, dug into the steps of the hill; the tombs are characterized by an external corridor that leads to the door of the tomb. In the most important tombs we find small rooms where children and grandchildren of the progenitor were buried, who was instead buried in the main room. All the finds and funerary objects are kept in the town museum. In the local gastronomy, the protagonist is the potato, which is used for various preparations: gnocchi, roast potatoes with fennel, boiled potato salad with cherry tomatoes and celery and stewed potato with stew. Typical desserts are: ricotta tortello, tozzetti and donuts with wine. This territory among those near Lake Bolsena is the richest in water, downstream we find the first source characterized by a fountain with three basins and a spring that fed the mills of the town until the aqueduct was built.