San Vito Romano developed around the fortified core of the castle, gradually spreading over the surrounding heights, including Monte San Vito, the Colle di Compigliano, the Torricella and Le Cese.
The oldest core, still called “nnabballe” (“down below”) by the inhabitants, lies at the foot of the castle and preserves, among sandstone outcrops and characteristic loggias, many elements of the old medieval village.
From the 17th century, the town expanded beyond the limits of its original core. The new quarter, called “nnammonte” (“up above”) by the inhabitants, developed above all with the building of the Borgo Mario, promoted by Cardinal Mario Theodoli. The new urban axis made it possible to extend the town beyond the cliff on which the medieval village had been concentrated, and profoundly altered the structure of the settlement.
An inscription still visible in Piazza Augusto Baccelli, dated 1649, celebrates the work of Cardinal Mario Theodoli with these words:
“Cardinal Mario Theodoli levelled the harshness of the mountains, opened the roads, and having levelled the hills turned them into houses, and there raised a temple to the divine dispeller of the plague. In the year of the Lord 1649.”
The inscription is a particularly significant record of the great urban transformation that San Vito Romano underwent during the 17th century: from the compactness of the medieval village gathered around the castle to the gradual expansion of the town towards the higher areas.