Overview
Trevi lies in the centre of the upper Aniene river valley. Its name comes from the word treba (trivio) due to its location on three important communication routes.
The ancient Equi inhabitants of this land were subjugated by the Romans, who built the city of Treba Augusta, whose many vestiges remain: temples, a wall reused in the Middle Ages, the ancient sewage system, several foundations of rustic villas, and the Arch of Trevi, located on the border between the territories of the Equi and the Ernici.
This area, far from the main roads and protected by the mountains, was unscathed by barbarian invasions but targeted by the expansionist aims of the Abbey of Subiaco. It became a lordship of the de Comitibus (Counts of Segni), then of the Caetani family and, finally, a Sublacense feud, remaining totally subject to the abbots from 1638. Once the abbey government ceased in the mid-1700s, Trevi remained under direct papal rule until national unification.
Transhumant farming did not favour the development of the community, seasonally seeing its population halved.
The WWII brought death and destruction to community in difficulty, one of the causes of the depopulation affecting the area in subsequent years.
Around the settlement, the Roman walls still stand, surmounted by medieval walls with several towers, square and circular, and a few gaps, now enlarged
The Caietani Castle, without historical sources on its origins but probably founded around the year 1000 with the take-off of the phenomenon of encastellation, stands imposingly on a boulder of compact rock with a residential and defensive function. From the top of the keep, in fact, you can see a good part of the upper Aniene valley.
The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta, mentioned as early as the 1200s, was enlarged in the 1400s following the return of the population within the walls. The materials used for the work were extracted from the ancient Romanesque cathedral of San Teodoro, which stood by the bridge of the same name and was the heart of the medieval Roman city. In the crypt or lower church, also called St Peter's, the mortal remains of the patron saint, canonised on site in 1215 by Pope Innocent III, are venerated.
Don't miss the Arch of Trevi on the border between Trevi and Guarcino, once the border of the Italic peoples of the Equi and Ernici.
03010 Trevi Nel Lazio FR, Italia
