Abbey of San Salvatore Maggiore
Description
The Abbey of San Salvatore Maggiore is a Benedictine monastery founded in the 8th century on the remains of a Roman villa along a Roman road on the Letenano plateau, between the Salto and Turano river basins.
Placed under Carolingian imperial protection, the abbey was a nullius diœcesis, subject only to the pope. From the 8th to 12th centuries it expanded its influence well beyond Rieti, owning lands in Sabina, the Piceno, the Marsica, and even in Rome. After the Investiture Controversy it became directly dependent on the Holy See and, from the 15th century, was granted in commendam to powerful Roman cardinals (Orsini, della Rovere, Farnese, Barberini). It was eventually suppressed as a Benedictine abbey in the 17th century.
After the monks were expelled in 1629, part of its income funded a seminary at Toffia; the abbey itself became a mission center and later an administrative seat for papal territories. The seminary was transferred there in 1746, moved again in 1841, and the complex saw various attempted reuses until it was abandoned after the 1915 earthquake.
Sold in 1979 and repurchased by the municipality of Concerviano in 1986, the abbey underwent restoration from the 1990s onward. The historic title “Abbot of San Salvatore Maggiore”, created in 735, has belonged to the bishop of Rieti since 1925.
Address
Concerviano, Italy
Established
735 AD