The

Farfa Abbey
AND THE
SABINE

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The antique region of the Sabine is closely linked to the myths and legends of the rape of the Sabine women, and to the kings of Rome Anco Marzio, and Numa Pompilio.
This area is a concentration or historic and imposing scenery. Immersed in a multicoloured and changeable environment, the Sabina territory extends immediately north of Rome before continuing east through a territory that becomes gradually rougher and mountainous, and marched by the valleys of the river Velino, Salto and Turano which form inspiring gorges or open into delightful lake reservoirs.
A landscape forged by events thousands or years old and coloured by the olives
that in the Sabine became a cultural symbol of the countryside. It is here where the Abbey of Farfa stands in grandeur as one of the most famous monuments of medieval Europe; at the height or its splendour a vast portion of central Italy belonged to the Abbey.The origin of the Abbey is still uncertain even though the most recent archaeological excavations have brought to light the existence of a development dating back to the Roman period underneath the present-day monastery. An almost certain identification by Lorenzo Siro and Forum Novum in 554 verified the creation of a fervent faith centre. In 775 Carlo Magno granted the Abbey the privilege of a total autonomy of all religious and civil power: it was from that moment that its majesty and wealth was born. In just a few decades the Abbey became one of the most prestigious and well-known sites of Medieval Europe.The semi-circular crypt is worth a visit. It dates from the Seventh and Eighth Centuries and contains a splendid Roman sarcophagus (late Second Century B.C.) with scenes of Romans battling barbarians. The bell tower (Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries) has in its base a square room containing highly interesting frescoes - despite their deteriorated condition - of the Roman school from the mid Eleventh Century. They depict biblical stories and the Ascension. One of the rooms upstairs contains, under an arch, Fifteenth Century frescoes depicting Prophets. One can complete one's visit to the Abbey by requesting a guided tour of the Small Longobardian Cloister (with a Romanesque window from the Thirteenth Century) and the Large Cloister dating back to the second half of the Seventeenth Century. The latter has a collection of Roman sculptures and engraved inscriptions. From here, one passes through a diamond-point portal into the present library containing over 35.000 volumes, several valuable codices among them. We cannot leave this Benedictine structure without mentioning the old library and its prestigious scriptorium. The former was certainly one of Europe's richest libraries during its heyday at the end of the Eleventh Century, whereas the latter was able, under Abbot Hugo I, to create a characteristic script of its own with a lower- case letter different from all the others of the time: the Roman Lower-case in the Scriptorium Pharfense becomes the Romanesca Farfense which reaches its glory in the works of Gregorio da Catino (1062 - 1133), an author of fundamental importance for Italian and European history of the Middle Ages. The new Museum on the ground floor is worth seeing although still in the course of being set up. In the Archaic Section there is a beautiful display of archaeological material coming from the nearby locality of Colle del Forno and pertaining to the life of the peoples that inhabited the ancient Sabine region (much larger than the present region.). TheCures Pillar is the only existantexample of Sabine stone inscription from the end of the Sixth Century B.C. and is a unique testimonial to this italic culture, long ignored and even today little known. The precious relic, which has still not been completely interpreted, was found in the bed of the Farfa Brook in March 1982. The Medieval Section includes an Ivory casket of the Amalfi school from the second half of the Eleventh Century, an early sixteenth Century canvas depicting the Virgin and Child With An Angel and two opisthographic panels from the late Fiftenth Century depicting St. Lorenzo Siro with St. Benedict and St. Tommaso di Morienna with St. Placido. They were painted by a pupil of Antoniazzo Romano. After having seen the Abbey one should not leave Farfa without first having a look at the village composed of houses all of the same height. At one time the monks rented these houses to the most prosperous merchants that gathered there for the big festivals in April and September. Now there is only one small workshop producing hand-loomed fabrics.