| Subiaco
The origin of Subiaco can be reconnected - according
to the historian Gregorio Jannuccelli - to three various
ages: the first before the gross age; the second one to the sec.I a.C. and the
third in the sec. VII. However, the first that carried
value to the Sublacense Region was emperor
Nerone that, in the sec.I a.C., made construct one great town house
and three artificial lagos (small lake of S.Benedetto in below photo) along
the course of the Aniene (the Watertight Simbruina, about which Tacit speaks
in the Annales, XIV, 22).
The first inhabited nucleus of Subiaco was found to "Pianiglio" (where
currently there is the Communal Stadium), like demonstrate the recoveries of
catacombs of the IV century. Here there is the most ancient church of the city,
S.Lorenzo, that testifies the official action of the birth
of Subiaco, 10th August of the 369.
In year 480 reached to Subiaco the young Benedict from Norcia
that founded, after three years of meditation, along the Valley of the Aniene,
thirteen monasteries and conceived the "Regula",
carrying structure of the Benedictine Order. Forced to leave the sublacense
region, after approximately thirties years of apostolate, he went to Montecassino
where died around the year 547.
After the dead of the saint, the Valley of the
Aniene was involved, like many other zones of Italy, in the Gothic-Byzantine
war, forcing the inhabitants to take refuge in less accessible places, giving
life to the centers of Vallepietra, Trevi and Filettino. Between VI and IX century,
series of barbaric incursions left recognizable traces in the territory; in
particular were destroyed, from part of the Saraceni, twelve of the thirteen
monasteries founded from S. Benedict, only leaving the one of S. Scolastica.
At the beginning of the sec. X the historical
documents become more reliable and numerous, and they indicates us a feudal
period under Abbot Lion III. The period that goes from the second half of the
sec. XI to before the XII marks, for Subiaco, the maximum splendor. Of this
period, in fact, are the restorations of S.Scolastica and the construction of
the Rocca Abbaziale (or Rocca of Borgia), which it followed
that one of the Monastery of the Sacred Speco, until then simple
cove even if reputed sanctuary from the age of S.Gregorio Magno.
This period of development was followed by one
less rose-colored that determined the cessation of the feudal powers of the
Abbots. Moreover an earthquake in the 1298, a successive flood of the Aniene,
the explosion of the plague and an other earthquake in the 1348 rendered the
life of the citizen particularly difficult.
In the year 1456 Giovanni Torquemada was name first commendatory Abbot, reformer
of the discipline of the monasteries and of the abbatial statutos. Under its
regimen was implanted in S. Scolastica the first printing office in Italy
with mobile characters technology, to work of German printers
C. Schweinheim and A. Pannartz, in the 1465 (In
the photo the first book printed in Italy, the "Lattanzio").
 To the Torquemada
succeded Rodrigo Borgia, that had to go up the pontifical throne under the name
of Alexander VI before the birth of his sons Cesar and Lucrezia. After him succees
the lordships of the Colunna and the Barberini respective in 1500 and 1600.
Finally in 1753 Pope Benedict XIV separated the temporal power of the Commenda
(transferred to the Sacred Consult) from the spiritual one. The Abbey entered
to make part, like political entity, of the Papal State.
Among the cardinals of this period, the city particularly
remembers Giovannangelo Braschi, who become Pope with the
name of Pio VI. He promoted a series of works: extension of the paper mill,
erection of the Basilica of S.Andrea Apostle (1789), restructure
of the Rocca of Borgia, urban planning of the city, institution of one public
library; moreover, he gave the title of "City" but he didn't have
requirements.
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The Sublacensi (citizen of Subiaco), recognizing, raised they
Arco Trionfale (in the photo), recently restored. In the first
years of the 800 there was the occupation of the French troops, continuation
in 1849 and 1867 from that one of the Thousands of Garibaldi that gave
place, between the other, to bloody crashs with the Zuavi.
Between several vicissitudes - that seen the city in a new period of decline
- it is arrived to March of 1915, with the total abolition of the Commenda
for wanting of Benedict XV.
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Tourist Information :
A.A.S.T., Via Cadorna, 59 - Tel. (+39) 0774/822013.
Public Transports:
Bus companies COTRAL with departures from Rome (Underground stop of "Ponte
Mammolo") and from Frosinone. |
