The Grand Tour in the territory of the Liri Valley

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the Liri Valley area hosted numerous artists, travellers, nobility and literati from all over Europe on the Grand Tour: an educational journey to discover the wonders of Italy

The classical historical and architectural memories linked to characters who were born here, such as Caius Marius and Marcus Tullius Cicero, the waterfalls of Isola del Liri together with the Boncompagni Castle and the Abbey of San Domenico, were the main places of interest. In the work of the artists, the landscape portrayed often showed the area's great wealth of water and waterfalls, potential that was later exploited in the early 19th century by some French entrepreneurs who created the basis for the development of the modern paper mills that made Isola del Liri and the Sora district one of the most industrialized areas in the entire Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Their works of art are today exhibited in the most important museums and collections around the world, while the mills constitute a substantial heritage of industrial archaeology.

Bibliography

Paolo Accettola, Artisti e viaggiatori del XVIII-XIX secolo a Casamari e presso San Domenico di Sora. Dal paesaggio del Grand Tour all’industrializzazione di inizio Ottocento nel distretto di Sora, Sora 2019, Centro di Studi Sorani «Vincenzo Patriarca» e Monastero di San Domenico Abate – Sora.
Paolo Accettola, Le cascate del Liri dalla Reggia al Castello, Catalogo della mostra, Castello Boncompagni-Viscogliosi di Isola del Liri, 13-28 novembre 2021, Associazione Apassiferrati – Arce.
Paolo Accettola, Le abbazie cistercensi di Casamari e di San Domenico e la Cattedrale di Sora. Nuove testimonianze nelle opere di artisti del Grand Tour, in Annali Storia Arte Cultura, 2013.1, Sora 2024, Centro di Studi Sorani Vincenzo Patriarca aps.