Collevecchio

Its origins?

The first evidence of human presence in the territory of Collevecchio dates back to the Paleolithic and the numerous remains found in the area demonstrate that, ove the centuries, many people settled there, until the advent of the Sabines and after the Roman occupation. In the Sabino-Tiberina necropolis of Poggio Sommavilla a flask has been found, bearing an inscription that is considered the oldest example of Sabine writing. The remains found in this area in the mid-1980s are exhibited in important museums in Boston and Copenhagen, as well as in the civic museums of Rieti and Magliano Sabina. In imperial Roman times, in the second half of the 1st century AD, the territory was subjected to the municipality  of Forum Novum; the Christianization and the continuous incursions by the Germanic peoples, that caused the collapse of the Roman Empire, favored the phenomenon of the fortification also in Collevecchio, through the re-use of existing Roman structures. On 10 December 1253, Pope Innocent IV authorised the Mozzanesi to move to Castrum Vetulum, the current historic centre of Collevecchio. Later on, 1368, the village became a fief of the Orsini family. However, Collevecchio owes its development to Paul V Borghese who, in 1605, assigned a Papal Governor to Sabina, whose seat was established in Collevecchio, and since then the village the seat of the Papal Court, receiving a series of benefits on the administrative, economic and cultural level. During the post-imperial Napoleonic restoration, in 1816, Collevecchio had 475 inhabitants and was included in the district of Poggio Mirteto, where the seat of the apostolic governorate was transferred. During the Risorgimento, the popular insurrection of 1848 forced Pope Pius IX to flee Rome, leading to the collapse of the Papal State, of which Collevecchio was part. Following the plebiscite held on 4 November 1860, the Municipality became part of the Kingdom of Italy and was included in the province of Perugia; in 1923 it passed to the Province of Rome until 1927, when it was annexed to the new establiashed province of Rieti.