Principato di ParranoUmbria · since 1118
From the bishops of Orvieto to the Marescotti princes, from the Bulgarelli family to Vittorio Valletta. A saga weaving popes, agronomists, industrial captains.
The history of Parrano is a long one: it begins in the Palaeolithic, runs through nine centuries of castle, passes through the hands of the bishops of Orvieto, of a Pope, of a great industrial captain. Every stone of this Principato tells a piece of that story.
The first human findings in the Devil's Lairs date back to the Upper Palaeolithic (30,000 – 10,000 years ago). The Venere Verde — female deity and symbol of fertility — was found here and will soon be on display at the Parrano museum.
The territory was influenced by Etruscan and Roman civilisation, confirmed by the various artefacts found in the area. The name “Parrano” itself may derive from the Latin parra, an ancient name for the hoopoe bird, common in the area, combined with the suffix-anus, indicating ownership of a property. The area had long been heavily used for producing oil and wine.
Under the influence of the bishops of Orvieto, the castle rises, around the year one thousand, on the foundations of Etruscan-Roman settlements. Erected to control the valley, the medieval village of Parrano grows around it.
First historic mention of Parrano. Bishop Guglielmo of Orvieto grants feudal rights to Bernardo di Bulgarelli, first count of Parrano. The village remains a small state of its own, with its own statutes.
Pope Clement XII Orsini, on 10 October 1733, elevates Parrano to an independent Principality in favour of Orazio Marescotti, first prince. The act that gives a name and identity to everything we are today.
Marquis Francesco Ruspoli-Marescotti wished to transform the castle from a fortress into a noble residence. The grand helical staircase is built, connecting the ground floor to the upper floors and the vast halls of the piano nobile.
Giuseppe Florio, a great agronomist, uses the Principato's vineyards to produce a wine that in the early 1900s is distributed on every Italian railway carriage and on the Orient Express.
Vittorio Valletta, president and managing director of Fiat from 1921 to 1966, acquires the Principato. He revitalises the estate with innovative techniques and carries out an important restoration of the castle.
Amilcare Baglioni, a collaborator at the Principato, invents cold-press extra virgin olive oil (under 27°). A method that is now the global standard of quality.
A skilled and radical restoration brings the castle back to its finest splendour with modern comforts.
The Principato lives a new phase: an estate oriented towards organic farming, highest-level hospitality, thermal waters. A perfect continuum between past, present and future.
“For millennia it has been a place of relationships at the highest level, the manifesto of la dolce vita.”
Sebastiano Ceccarini, Allegory of the Five Senses — 18th century. The art kept at the Principato tells the taste of an era when Parrano was a crossroads of popes, princes and industrial captains.
Nine centuries cannot be told: they are lived. Choose how to sleep inside this story — in the castle rooms, in the village residences, in the estate farmhouses.
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