History
Cecilia Metella's mausoleum is the most known and better preserved funeral monument in the Appian Way. It was the tomb of a patrician woman called Cecilia Metella, wife of Marco Crasso, who was the child of Marco Licino Crasso, one of the first Triumvirato's members (together with Cesar and Pompeo). Archaeologists assume the tomb was belonged to Cecilia Metella thanks to the inscription on the marble lapide posted up on the high part of the mausoleum, where you can read the following words: "Caeciliae Q. Cretici F(iliae) Maetellae Crassi" (see the
photo gallery in this web site). Originally the monument was really different from that it looks today. In the Middle Ages in fact, the monument was transformed into a fortress and battlements were added. Many families contested for the ownership of the mausoleum because it was located in a exceptional strategical position. Very probably the fortification was built by Tuscolo's counts:
"A Pope Gregorio VII's bull (1073-1085) mentions about a certain Gregorius de Tuscolana (identified as Gregorio III of Tuscolo's counts) as the owner of the palace of Massenzio and the nearby territories; so one can legitimately suppose that the fortification of the mausoleum and this stretch of the Appia Way was settled by Tuscolo's counties, in order to control the way that lead to their southern property." (source: Medioevo.Roma)
successively Caetani, Savelli, Colonnesi and Orsini families themselves followed. As a result of hard quarrels the castle was destroyed around the beginnings of XIV the century. The mausoleo was restored by Canine Luigi around 1850-1853.