Valfabbrica - art, accomodation, events, ecc.

Valfabbrica

Valfabbrica
The history of Valfabbrica, which dates to 820, was linked for several centuries to the Benedictines monastery of St Nary.
Surely very ancient, this monastery was so powerful that it was able to compete with the local landlords; governed by its own monks, it was independent until the end of the XII century and converted the marshy land along the Chiascio at Torchiagina into fertile land.
It was the centre of several fights between Perugia and Assisi, before its decline in 1359, due to the very bad conditions it found itself in. The goods of the monastery, to the monks of which should be probably recognised the merit of building the castle for defence, passed into the hands of the men of the Church, who held the priory until 1544.
Forced to ask protection from the Duke of Urbino Guidubaldo I, to help defend themselves against the Perugians, Valfabbrica remained under the protection of the dukedom until the first decades of the XVII century. In 1629 it came under the protection of the Church, when Francesco Maria della Rovere gave his own lands to the Pope, who owned then until 1880.
Casacastalda has go Longobard origins; annexed to the territory of Valfabbrica, it had a big development in the early Middle Ages.
Today, it is still richly evocative, with its town wells and its historical centre.

Main monuments:
the castle, two towers with Gualph battlements represent what is left of the ancient castle; the castle of Casacastalda: it has got very ancient origins. It probably dates from the VIII century, that is, the time of the Longobard king Desideries - the Abbey Church of St Maria dell'Olmo, at Casacastalda: it was built in the XV century; in the inside we can see a nice triptych by Matteo da Gualdo.