Italy, Magliano Sabina

The history of Magliano Sabina is closely linked with the ancient Sabino people who lived on the banks of the Tiber, and had a close relationship with Rome thanks to various river mooring ports. Magliano was just one of these ports and a crossroads of peoples and animal movement. Magliano in Roman times was the Roman town of Ocriculum. The current centre was formed in the Middle Ages under the protection of the Abbey of Farfa and in the fourteenth century passed under the direct control of the Holy See. In 1495, Pope Alexander VI Borgia declared it a 'City' and the seat of the Diocese of Sabina, which is the cathedral of the Sabines. In all these years there were no bridges, the Tiber was passed by fording and the Maglianesi controlled this ford. The papal policy therefore could not exist without the Magliano. This policy was continued especially by Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) in which the benevolence of Magliano was necessary in order to get the green light to the armies of Cesare Borgia, who came and went along the Flaminia engaged in the conquest of Romagna. The diversion of the river, ordered by Pope Sixtus V in the late sixteenth century, involved serious economic consequences for Magliano.