Subiaco, Italy

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Comune di Subiaco
Municipal coat of arms
Country	Italy
Region	Lazio
Province	Rome
Mayor	Pierluigi Angelucci (since June 2006)

Elevation	408 m
Area	63 km²
Population
- Total (as of December 31, 2004)	9,255
- Density	142/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	41°56′N, 13°06′E
Gentilic	Sublacensi
Dialing code	0774
Postal code	0028

Patron	San Ranieri
- Day	June 17
Location of Subiaco in Italy
Website: (Official site in construction)

Subiaco is a city in the Province of Rome, in Lazio, Italy, twenty-five miles from Tivoli alongside the river Aniene. It is mainly renowned as tourist and religious resort for its sacred grotto (Sacro Speco), in the St. Benedict's Abbey, and the other Abbey of St. Scholastica. It is also famous as the first city in Italy where books were printed, in the 15th century.

[edit] History

In ancient times settlers of the area were the Aequi, an Italic people. In 304 BCE they were won by the Romans, who subsequently introduced their civilization and took advantage of the waters of the Aniene river. The names the city has nowadays comes from the artificial lakes of the luxurious villa that emperor Nero had had built here: in Latin sublaqueum means "under the lake", and name extended to the town that had grown in the nearby. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the villa and the town were abandoned, becoming almost forgotten ruins.

When St. Benedict, at the age of fourteen, retired from the world and lived for three years in a cave above the River Anio, supplied with the necessaries of life by a monk, St. Roman. The grotto became the cradle of the Benedictine Order - St. Benedict was able to build twelve monasteries and to place twelve monks in each. The one at the grotto seems to have had but a short existence; in 854 we find a record of its renovation. In this year, Leo IV is said to have consecrated an altar to Sts. Benedict and Scholastica and another to St. Sylvester. Another renovation took place in 1053 under Abbot Humbert of St. Scholastica. Abbot John V, created cardinal by Gregory VII, made the grotto the terminus of a yearly procession, built a new road, and had the altars reconsecrated.

Shortly before 1200 there existed a community of twelve, which Innocent III made a priory; John XXII in 1312 appointed a special abbot. A new road was built by the city in 1688. The sacred grotto is still a favourite pilgrimage, and on October 27, 1909, Pius X granted a daily plenary indulgence to those who receive Holy Communion there and pray according to the intention of the Holy Father (Acta. Ap. Sedis, II, 405). The Abbey of St. Scholastica, about a mile and a half below the grotto was built by St. Benedict himself (about 520), and endowed by the Roman patricians, Tertullus and Æquitius. The second abbot, St. Honoratus, changed the old monastery into a chapter room and built a new one, dedicating it to Sts. Cosmas and Damian. It was destroyed by the Lombards in 601 and abandoned for a century. By order of John VII it was rebuilt by Abbot Stephen and consecrated to Sts. Benedict and Scholastica. Demolished in 840 by the Saracens and again in 981 by the Hungarians, it rose from its ruins.

Benedict VII consecrated the new church, and henceforth the abbey was known by the name St. Scholastica. In 1052, Leo IX came to Subiaco to settle various disputes and to correct abuses; a similar visit was made by Gregory VII. Special favour was shown by Paschal II, who took the abbey from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Tivoli and made it an abbacy nullius. Its temporal welfare was also a care of the popes. Thus, among others, Innocent III, at his visit, in 1203, increased the revenues of the abbey. With the decline of religious fervour, strifes and dissension arose to such an extent that Abbot Bartholomew in 1364, by command of the pope, had to dismiss some of the incorrigible monks and fill their places with religious from other monasteries. Numbers were brought in from Germany and for many decades Subiaco was a centre of German thrift, science, and art. Still, it seems the discipline was not satisfactory, for Urban VI (1378-1389) abolished the abbots for life, took away from the monks the right of election, and gave the administration and revenues to a member of the Curia.

Pope Callixtus III, in 1455, gave the abbey in commendam to a cardinal. The first of these was the Spanish Cardinal Torquemada and the second Roderigo Borgia (later Alexander VI), who remodeled the Castrum Sublacence, once the summer resort of the popes, and made it the residence of the commendatory abbot. Many of these abbots cared but little for the religious life of the monks and looked only for the revenues. As an example, Pompeo Colonna, Bishop of Rieti, commendatory abbot since 1506, squandered the goods of the abbey and gave the income to unworthy subjects. On complaint of the community, in 1510, Julius II readjusted matters and restored the monastic possessions. For spiritual benefit a union had been made between Subiaco and the Abbey of Farfa, but it lasted only a short time. In 1514. Subiaco joined the Congregation of St. Justina, whose abbot-general was titular of St. Scholastica, while a cardinal remained commendatory abbot. Even after this union there were quarrels between Subiaco and Farfa, Subiaco and Monte Cassino, the Germans and the Italians.

After this but little is known about the abbey and the city until the of the 19th century. In 1798-1799 and 1810-1814 French troops entered the city, ploundering the monasteries and the churches. In 1849 and 1867 Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered the city in his plan to destroy the temporal rule of the Pope: in 1870 the city become definitively part of the Regno d'Italia.

As for the abbey, in 1851 some of the monasteries of Italy, with consent of the Holy See, had formed a separate province, though still belonging to the Congregation of St. Justina. Soon other monasteries in various parts of the world wished to join this union, and Pius IX, by Decree of March 9, 1872, established the Cassinese Congregation of primitive observance. This congregation, known also as the Congregatio Sublacensis, has enjoyed growth for, according to the "Familiæ Confderatæ" of 1910, it embraces 35 monasteries in 5 provinces, with a total of 1050 religious. The troubles of Subiaco did not cease for by order of June 19, 1873, the property was sequestrated by the Italian Government, the abbey declared a national monument, and the religious tolerated as custodians of the same.

At first only a few monks remained, but in 1897 there was again a community of 25 and the "Familiæ Confderatæ" of 1910 notes 21 priests, 10 clerics, 8 lay brothers, and 3 novices. On January 10, 1909, Pius X restored to the monks the right of electing their own abbot. On the 28th they elected Lawrence Salvi. The pope conferred on him the right of wearing the cappa magna and Salvi received the abbatial benediction. In 1904, Luigi Cardinal Macchi resigned his office as commendatory abbot, and Pius X retained the position for himself ordering the Acts of the Curia to bear the heading: "Pius X Abbas Sublacensis".

In 1891, a Benedictine abbey founded earlier in Northern Arkansas, United States, changed its name to Subiaco in order to more closely align its teachings and practices to those of the famous abbeys of Subiaco, Italy.

In Subiaco, the German printers, Sweinheim and Pannartz, established a printing press and printed Donatus pro parvulis, Lactantius, (1465), and De Civitate Dei (1467). Those were the very first books to be printed in Italy.

In the first years of the 20th century the area was improved with the connection to a railway, an hydroelectric plant and on aqueduct. Electricity was brought to the houses and a hospital was built. In World War II Subiaco was bombed by Allied planes, who destroyed three buildings out of three, including some historical ones.

[edit] Main sights

The ancient St. Francis' bridge

In addition to the two abbeys that are so much a part of Subiaco, also noteworthy are:

the Rocca Abbaziale ("Abbots castle"), a massive medieval edifice largely rebuilt in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The church of Saint Francis (1327), housing notable paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries.
The neo-classical churches of Sant'Andrea and Santa Maria della Valle.