The first person to give autonomy to Sabina, with respect to Rome, was Charlemagne.
The art, from the Carolingian to the Lombard, bears witness to the fact of the area’s importance, which endured over time.
Farfa Abbey was also very important, and already in the seventh century exercised control over all of central Italy. The Abbey is a site of great architectural and artistic beauty and historically very relevant, favoured by its strategic position, not far from Rome.
This area also retains an indelible medieval imprint due to the presence of St. Francis and the places of the saint: the Sanctuaries of Fonte Colombo, Greccio, Poggio Bustone and La Foresta.
In the plain next to the Velino River, just before the Sabine hills give way to the Apennines, is the city of Rieti, the ancient royal residence of the Sabine populations. Around the year one thousand, the city suffered terrible destruction at the hands of the Saracens; not long after it was rebuilt, with a new cathedral, and the towers and walls still visible today.
In the 13th century, in the Cathedral of Santa Maria, on the day of the Pentecost of 1289, Pope Nicholas IV performed a solemn and memorable rite and crowned Charles II of Anjou, son and successor of Charles I, giving him the kingdom of Sicily and Jerusalem.
Near the border with Umbria, Sabina still offers glimpses of the Middle Ages.
The village of Poggio Mirteto is surrounded by 14th-century walls, preserved only in part, while the maze of very evocative alleys, which lead to the 13th-century Church of San Paolo, remains intact. In this same territory is Santa Maria in Vescovìo, a cathedral of the Sabines until 1400, which still preserves its intact 12th-century architectural features, and all of its medieval spirituality with the 12th-13th-century frescoes depicting biblical stories.
A few kilometres away, the village of Tarano, surrounded by walls and towers, is dominated – like all medieval urban plans – by a church with a tall bell tower. Just 2 km away, enclosed with walls, is also Montebuono, again with a medieval 13th-century church, which preserves only part of the original structure of the bell tower.