Historical Facts

Norcia, older than Rome, Norcia, among walls and nature, among memories and traditions. It is in the pre-Roman period (before 753 B.C.), that Norcia fully establishes its origins, assuming the characteristics of a community of villages where the classification between man and woman was marked and the economy merely one of sustenance.

Sabine Norcia, because the region from which it springs is Sabine. Geographically speaking, Norcia is found on the northeast side of this region, a territory poor in natural resources but certainly most important on the strategic level. The principal agricultural crop was spelt (a type of wheat), a grain still common today in the area; olive groves and vineyards were also abundant. Unfortunately, the nature of this agriculture was often insufficient in sustaining the people, thus the Sabines had to assume the characteristic of a migratory people in search of more fertile lands and pastures. As regards the cult of the dead, the Sabines were a burying people: the dear departed were interred underground to reunite them with mother earth, in what could be defined as a permanent conception.

As already stated, Norcia occupied a strategic position that, soon enough, came to interest the great power of Rome. In fact, scholars affirm that the first contact between Sabines and Romans was had already in ancient times at the dawning of Roman civilization, to be followed later by the well-known Rape of the Sabines: Romulus, the historical founder of Rome, was the brother of Remus and son of Mars and Rhea (etymologically close to the Sabine name, Rieti).

In 290 B.C., Norcia was already fully in the Roman orbit, even if it still had not been totally absorbed by the Roman Empire. The great and important Roman conquests arrived simultaneously with the development of Norcia, left free to her own devices; in a certain sense, she belonged by right to Roman history for the common history that they shared. The first significant break between the Romans and the Sabines of Norcia happened when Rome decided to declare war against the people of Samnium, the region immediately next to the Sabine territories. For unknown reasons, the Sabine leaders, during this conflict, gave free access to their lands to the Samnites, contradicting Roman power. In 290 B.C., the weak defenses of Norcia were overthrown and Norcia definitively conquered. Norcia was then reorganized according to the “uniform model of Romanization”, but its good conduct and the unconditional submission during the conquest guaranteed liberty and the obtaining of Roman citizenship in 268 B.C.

In 476 A.D., the Roman Empire fell, beginning a new period in history known as the Medieval. Norcia fit in with difficulty in this new context, above all because, in that period, earthquakes rent the architectural structure of the city. The Lombards absorbed Norcia into the Duchy of Spoleto, reorganizing, among other things, the preexisting urban order, dividing Norcia into neighborhoods, each having a piazza, a source of water and a church.

In 1291, there was the first Republic of Norcia, better known as S.P.Q.N., represented by a coat of arms: a lion rampant that still today is the principal symbol of Norcia.

The City of Norcia had its origin, probably, in the organization of laborers, artisans and merchants and, after its birth, it created Statutes for itself.

The period of the magistrate of the “Podestà” followed, and was supplanted, briefly, by a new figure: the “Captain of the People”, a six-month long appointment that enjoined an oath of fidelity to the Republic of Norcia. It was in this time period that the city walls were rebuilt and the importance given to the individual neighborhoods was returned, giving also, among other things, new breath to the existing churches.