The XXth Century

The situation of Valentano, at the beginnings of 1900 was not dissimilar from many other towns in the province of Viterbo, a diffused poverty reigned among the large majority of the citizens, while the ownership was assembled in the hands of some well-off families, the Parish and of the numerous Brotherhoods.
Only after having participated in the First World war our farmers were assigned by the Commune the so-called enfiteusis (around 8.000 meters earth) pieces of ground that they could directly cultivate. Then, during the years, a greater splitting up of the ownerships is to be recorded, so that many small agrarian firms will rise with a minimum of family income.
In June of 1944 the passage of the front of war will record, in the clashes among German and allied soldiers, the death of eleven civilians, many of which died for the burst of the bomb of the "Portonaccio". So it was to be called, from now on, the bugnato artistic entrance of the historical Palazzo Vitozzi (end of sec. XVI-beginnings sec. XVII) long Paves (Via Trento e Trieste).

 
Click on the images to enlarge

The economic situation of the town in the postwar period was, for many, source of deprivations so much that with the so-called "Riforma Agraria" of the Ente Maremma, after 1951, around one hundred families (around 600 citizens) transferred to Pescia Romana, where they had in assignment the so-called "family farms" (poderi).
The city population that counted then 3.826 inhabitants (the maximum reached), went down to 3.218 unities (census 1961). This demografic decrease continued during the years to follow for settling, in the last years, around 2.925 inhabitants, despite the increase of the housing installation that notably widened making to assume to the country an aspect by now homogeneous as the various lived places (Villa of the Fountains, Felceti, loc. The Villa, Via del Ritiro) are now joined together.

Back: The History