origins
Whether they have religious identity rather than public or private one, historical significance implies a greater responsibility in preserving them.
evolution
Changed over time according to the owners’ still, more tha others categories, preserving their distinctive features.
spreading
Wide presence in the Sabine territory: isolated in the countryside, nestled on the slopes of the mountains or strategically positioned on rocks overlooking valleys
shapes
Massive, squared, transmitting steadiness; height development with openings functional first and then aesthetic.
structure
Characteristics belonged to the military architecture, from the feudal period. Wood and stone are the materials, enriched by craftsmanship over time
ornamental elements
Mosaics, sculptures and paintings with symbolic messages: from religious values to material desires
Scattered almost everywhere on our peninsula’s territory, they arise isolated and lost in the countryside (such as parish churches), or located in pleasant places often on the slopes of the mountains (such as convents or abbeys), they are mostly far from inhabited centers, on dominant rocky spurs that bar the valleys. Often their position fulfills a strategic function: arranged a defense of the inhabited centers (the castles or watchtowers) or built near the courses to exploit their energy (the mills).
Having them a wide presence in the Sabine territory either, where almost all the villages arose during the period of the fortification and they concentrated in more protected and better defensible places, often on the top of the hills, to shelter from barbarian raids and from the raids of brigands.This is how the defensive castles, fortified residences and city walls were built whose traces are still visible today.
Equally well visible and widespread are the religious buildings, parish churches and churches with their architectural constants, legacy of the long period spent by the Sabina under the influence of the papal state.
