Erected on the site of an ancient fortress, of which there are records from the end of the 13th century, it was then inhabited by about 500 people. In 1390 it was occupied by the Raspanti Perugini and in 1501 it depended on Porta Eburnea (or Arco della Mandorla, Perugia county). In the 19th century, it passed into the hands of Lemmo Rossi Scotti, Count of Montepetriolo, one of the greatest 19th-century painters of battles, to whom we owe the transformation into a residential complex during the second half of the 19th century, when the monumental "Limonaia" was also built, in the neo-Gothic style identifiable in the overlapping, in the numerous battlements that adorn the complex and in the landscaping of the park.
In the second half of the 19th century, Bernardino Rossi married Angelica Scotti of Perugia and inherited the estate, adding his wife's surname to his own. In the dynastic succession, the village was inherited by Lemmo Rossi Scotti, Count of Monte Petriolo and painter, who transformed it into a noble residence. In the last century, the complex belonged to Tiberio (Bero) Rossi Scotti, an animator of the Perugian aristocracy, an important landowner for tobacco production and an authority in the management of fairs and agricultural markets.
The original nucleus, arranged in a U-shape around a courtyard, was added to by numerous buildings at various times, resulting in an uneven and composite layout resulting from the marked configuration of the aristocratic residence in the form of a castle, stylistically inspired by neo-Gothic style, and the primitive medieval layout of the rest of the village, which is not devoid of overlapping rural structures pertaining to the agricultural/livestock activities carried out by the Rossi Scotti Counts. The complex is surrounded, in its approximately 20 hectares, by 600 olive trees and an impressive park, planted at the end of the 19th century. With an English landscape layout, the park is crossed by very long avenues and covers the entire hillside up to the entrance to the valley, protected by an imposing tower in the shape of a castle and by an extraordinarily important oak wood.
Inside there are various types of trees but above all elements to admire such as basins and ponds where the canal of the "imbarcadero" originally flowed, which originated under the square in front of the villa of the Counts, as well as the monumental "limonaia", built in the late 19th century and then redesigned in the first decade of the 20th century and today the site of our restaurant "Rura". After the death of Count Tiberio and the transfer of his wife to Perugia, the complex, although it changed hands twice, was left in extremely poor condition for at least twenty years.
The concept applicable to the resort for the restoration was based on the principle of the inescapable recomposition of a whole which, although varied due to the diversity of the existing structures, had to merit a conjugation of the best residual values that had survived the abandonment with the expectations of a high target of comfort and functionality in keeping with a structure of value, with furnishings capable of combining modern and functional style with the magic of an ancient stay and the historical uniqueness of the structure.
