Grottaferrata
Italian comune
Grottaferrata (Italian pronunciation: [ˌɡrɔttaferˈraːta, ˌɡro-]) is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, situated on the lower slopes of the Alban Hills, 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Rome. It has grown up around the Abbey of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata, founded in 1004. Nearby communes include Frascati, Rocca di Papa, Marino and Rome.
History
The history of Grottaferrata identifies largely with that of the Basilian Monastery of Santa Maria, founded here in 1004 by Saint Nilus the Younger. The founding legend narrates that, at the spot where the abbey now stands, the Virgin Mary appeared and bade him found a church in her honour.
From Gregory, the powerful Count of Tusculum, father of Popes Benedict VIII and John XIX, Nilus obtained the site, which had been a Roman villa, where among the ruins there remained a low edifice of opus quadratum that had been a tomb but had been converted to a Christian oratory in the fourth century. Its iron window grates gave the site the name, first of Cryptaferrata ("ironbound crypt") then of Grottaferrata, commemorated in the coat-of-arms of the commune. From the site, a Roman bronze of a man and a cow attracted the antiquarian attention of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, who had the group removed to Lucera.
Nilus died soon afterwards (26 December 1005) in the Sant' Agata monastery in Tusculum. The monastic building was carried out by his successors, especially the fourth abbot, Saint Bartholomew, who is usually considered the second founder.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Grottaferrata” as italian comune. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as italian comune. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q242703. VIAF identifies the subject as 143701728. The Library of Congress control number is n79063212. Authority coordinates are 41.800, 12.667. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1004 and 1005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grottaferrata” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.