The Agostini family was one of the most important families of the 19th century rural bourgeoisie in our area. With the Napoleonic laws and the Unification of Italy, they acquired immense estates by auctioning off ecclesiastical, state, etc. property.
The progenitor was Don Giovanni Antonio D'Agostino, “physical surgeon” of Casalvieri who in 1743 married Rosa Anna Simeone, twenty years younger, who brought him this palace as a dowry and gave birth to the family with him, changing the surname to Agostini. She was soon widowed and single-handedly bore the burden of the family of nine children.
These families, in order not to divide the patrimony, made it so that only one of the children could marry. The others either took up ecclesiastical careers or cohabited in the same house as bachelors, but they did not have to undergo great sacrifices: at the time, misery sharpened the wits of many women who were very sensitive to the charm and wealth of the lords.
They granted land to peasants with sharecropping contracts and used an administrator-guardian who supervised the observance of the contracts, presided over the division of crops, authorised the cutting of wood, hunting in the woods, the gathering of wild fruits, and paid attention to theft and fraud. The last known of him was called Narduccio. He was the terror of the sharecroppers and came from Posta Fibreno It is no coincidence that the guardian could not be a fellow sharecropper.
Tails of donkeys in front of the palace, depending on the season, unloaded grapes, olives, wheat and other things that were processed and stored in the basement or in the granaries on the upper floors.
The palace, now owned by the municipality, dates back to the first half of the 18th century and underwent major restoration in 1890. The oil mill on the ground floor was incorporated into the palace before it was raised. The large milling wheel and the lever pressing technique with a winch was in use before the 18th century, while the press technique became widespread in the first half of the 19th century.
The family was the guardian of the confraternity of St Francis Xavier and at the end of each procession he used to offer wine and sweets in the hall of the house to the spalloni (those who carried the saint's car on their shoulders).