HISTORICAL RESEARCH ABOUT CANE CORSO

The inhabitants of Montopoli di Sabina, commonly known as Montopolesi, have a nickname, corsari (meaning corsairs-pirates), which goes deeply into time. They have disputed for a long time about the origins of this nickname, which recalls the time of the pirates, piracy and naval battles.

This explanation is not historically correct, because the first actions of piracy go back to the XVI century and took place in far seas, where fast english and french ships haunted spanish galleons loaded with gold on their way back home. And what's more, we must underline that Montopoli lays several chilometers far from the sea and its inhabitants have traditions linked with agriculture. Our researchers ackowledged the importance of stating a period of birth of that nickname, just to concentrate their studies on a given historical lapse of time. It was also important to verify, in that same territory, the existence of towns whose inhabitants had nickname not recalling their present names. It came out that the inhabitants of casperia have the nickname of aspresi, with medieval origin, as that town was once called aspra (hard, rough), because it was not easy to be reached.

The inhabitants of Cantalupo were called bambocciari (from bamboccio meaning plump child), because of the presence, at the entrance of that town, of two ancient roman statues. As a consequence this suggested that the nicknames derive from the middle ages and that they recall characteristics of the territory. They could also find written evidences in an ancient manuscript of an unknown author of montopoli; this work is still preserved at the alibrandi archive of montopoli. It deals with the history of Montopoli from the origins up to the XVI century, and there you can read that: the inhabitants of mons operis (montopoli) are known by tradition to be strong men, warriors provided with cane corsos for their own defence and the defence of the lands, so as to be called corsari (corsairs).

The cane corso kennel ... a strange den

The old area of Montopoli preserves its charm of medieval town, with entangled narrow streets climbing up to its higher part, interrupted by narrow but clean alleys. From the summit, in the little square in front of the tower, you can have a wonderful panorama of the wide farfa valley with the majestic and famous abbey, the counterforts of the appennini mountains, and the several small villages built on the top of mountains with a purpose of defence. If you draw your attention from the beauty of the territory to the architectural details, you can easily notice small doors at the ground floor of some dwellings. Behind the doors you can observe small rooms (46mq), with an unusual height (1.30/1.40m).

Unsuitable for any use, because it is hard even to stand up. The montopolesi find them not fit as cowhouse, because they are too low for cows and too narrow as sheepfold, and not fit to breed pigs. Some of them have been digged during the centuries to gain an acceptableheight; this can be easily seen when observing the original level of the ground floor, because the excavations brought to light some stones of their foundation. You can find one of these store-rooms preserving its original height in the school building, closed by a walled fence. These rooms are similar in their dimensions and entrances to those containing the animals used in the fights with the gladiators, found in the amphitheatre at pompei, the most ancient example of roman amphitheatre (80 bc). Some of them have been digged during the centuries to gain an acceptable height; this can be easily seen when observing the original level of the ground floor, because the excavations brought to light some stones of their foundation. You can find one of these store-roomspreserving its original height in the school building, closed by a walled fence. These rooms are similar in their dimensions and entrances to those containing the animals used in the fights with the gladiators, found in the amphitheatre at Pompei, the most ancient example of roman amphitheatre

The origins of Montopoli ... the Romans ...

You just go back through the origins of a name, dig the underground, give a look all around and you get in touch, in Italy, with the roman civilization; the same also happened to us. During the age of augustus, a famous man of letters and roman general, whose name was caius asinius pollionis, owned a villa located in the present territory of montopoli; this settlement gives the original name to the town, mons pollionis, from which derives mons operis, with clear reference to the industriousness of its inhabitants, mons opulens, for the fertility of the land, and soon afterwords montis opulis.

We can easily affirm that the ancient romans were actively present on that territory, and influenced also its future development. After two thousand years we can nowadays observe traces of the ancient roman divisions of the territory (centuriazioni and jugeri) and in some case, the division were 50 "jugeri"(the "jugeri" was a quantity of land wich one slave, with two oxen, was obliged to till in one day, about a quarter hectare). The origins of montopoli further affirm that the cane corso is a direct descendant of the dogs used by the romans in war or in circus shows: the molossian hounds and the pugnaces britanniae.

The event: the destruction of the castle of Tribuco (1138)

We can't talk about the history of the castle of Tribuco, without mentioning the abbey of farfa, because the events which involved this castle are closely linked with that abbey.

The abbey of farfa was built in the middle of the vi century, thanks to S. Lorenzo Siro, on the ruins of a roman villa of the II-I century b.c.. Destroyed by the Longobards, it was abbandoned and later on rebuilt by S. Tommaso da Moriana, on his way back from a pilgrimage in the holy land. With the help of Faroaldo II, duke of Spoleto, and after the Saracens' domination (898-915), it began its rise. Farfa followed the reforming influence of cluny and flourished again, supported by important imperial privileges. Farfa was at that time a state with a flourishing economic policy, and had also its own army to fight against squires and local vassals, for the estates of Triburco and Bocchignano. During the struggle for investitures Farfa became more independent from Rome and the pope, and supported the emperor, Henry IV; after the worms pact (1122), it gained the protection of the pope. The castle of Triburco always tried to hinder the feudal domain of Farfa, and this led it to the total distruction. During the month of october, 1137, the castle of Triburco rebelled against the authority of a mighty abbot, Adinolfo I, and drove away the followers of the monastery of Farfa.

A monk in particular was horribly mutilated (he was blinded and his tongue and ears were cut), and this fact caused a deep indignation and the violent reaction of the Farfensi.

The following story is taken from a document dated 1862, entitled: upon the salso-marziale water in Farfa di Sabina, memories of dott. Lorenzo Costantini from Poggio S. Lorenzo:

"The unhappy blind monk, bereft of his tongue and of his ears, barbarously cut, was bounded by these criminals and put on a horse, who led him, dripping with blood, to the monastery. You can imagine how terrible that sight was to the abbot's eyes and the awful story of such a cruel and unhuman behaviour caused grudge in the whole monastery. A call to arms was published in Farfa. The first to run in order to revenge that terrible infamy inflicted to the abbot were the inhabitants of montopoli, which were known, by tradition, to be brave men of arms, all provided with cane corsos for their own defence and the defence of the land, so that they were called corsari (corsairs). The vassals of the nearby castle of fara also ran, and made the same offer. The abbot of Farfa, supported by all the monks, then ordered the Montopolitani and the Farfesi in arms, to attack the rebel castle of Triburco, to chase its inhabitants away together with Crescenzo, the usurper and send everything to flames, so that not even the ruins could recall that rebellion. The attackers met strong resistence; as the count had stengthened the forces of the Tribicesi (ihabitants of triburco) with a big deal of nazzanesi vessels. It was a bloody fight and lasted almost a whole day. Those big dogs caused a terrible massacre during the attack, because the long lack of food made them more aggressive; the rebels had to run away and, in the end, abbandoned the castle."

You can read further details on that event in an article published on the magazine called "Mondo sabino" in 1992, whose author was Roberto Donati. He writes about the direct participation of the imperial troops, which were among the emperor Lotarius II's suite, to the destruction of the castle of Triburco. Lotarius II was in fact in Italy during that period because of the church's internal conflicts between Pope Innocenzo III and Antipope Anacleto II, and wanted to put an end to the rebellions which caused great damages to the abbey of Farfa. The presence of Cane Corsos in the battle is here mentioned, too: but the montopolesi discovered by chance a secret passage leading to the inside of the fortress, through which some cane corsos, starving themselves and devoided of water for days, entered the castle. When they saw the inhabitants of Triburco, they were so hungry that they furiously rushed against those people causing a massacre. The exhausted defenders of that castle got so scared because of the slaughter that they abbandoned the fight, looking for a way out in the waters of the Farfa river. This is the story of the events that led to the destruction of the castle of Triburco (also called tribico). There remain nowadays only a few traces of the ruins of that old castle, which was located nearby the present town of Pontesfondato, close to Montopoli di Sabina.

Montopoli and the Cane Corso ... from the past to the future

The help given by the Montopolesi to the abbey of Farfa during the centuries was fully rewarded: on april 24, 1390 the abbot Niccolo' II, in solemn proceedings, and on payment of 94 florins, assigned half of those territories belonging to the destroyed castle of Triburco to the people of Montopoli; soon afterwards, in 1489, the commendatory* abbot, cardinal Gianbattista Orsini, made another donation. These bequests gave the montopolesi a real well-being, preserving those people from famines, which followed during the centuries. These estates are nowadays rented for farming. In the last few years it became common opinion to suggest a different use for those estates, in order to increase their income and give other people new chances of employment, as well as to increase the international fame of Montopoli. A project, called Montopolandia, has been developped and it plans the building up of an international pleasure-ground; several big italian and foreign firms have shown deep interest in it.the protagonists of the local history, the montopolesi and the cane corsos, suggested a new project: an international dog meeting to celebrate that race in 1999, as the last act of this story at the end of the 2nd millennium.

*the commendatory abbots were not monks. The Popes were the first to recommend people, considered worthy by the church, for this honorary appointment.as time went by, this title became hereditary and the abbeys and their territories became the patrimony of some families.