The right bank of the river offers to the visitors a series of ancient villages placed high on the river flow. Fiano, Nazzano, Torrita Tiberina and Filacciano tell a story which has been influenced but not perverted in its essential features by the closeness of Rome. The river Tevere has been for ages the borderline between Etruscans and Sabini, then between abbeys and feuds whose masters changed often; nevertheless, they always respected the natural barrier represented by the river, and that is the reason why the villages had been established on the hills, far from the unhealthy zones which were flooded for long periods every year.
The intense trade on the river, typical of the Roman age, became less important as the land was divided and the small boroughs were established in the actual form. If the region of Nazzano was in control of the Basilica of S. Paolo fuori le Mura, the opposite bank was a feud of the Abbey of Farfa, which had also its own harbour on the river, in the neighbourhood of Passo Corese.
The feudalism, remarkable since the tenth century, caused also a deep change in the form of the villages. Towers and castles were built, the fortress became the centre of the activity and of the urbanistic structure. The castle of Fiano, established about 1000, had many different owners (Orsini, Colonna, Sforza, Ludovisi) during its history and it is still a private property. The fortified borough of Torrita Tiberina, built along a main street, had the same destiny as the castle of Fiano, while the village of Nazzano, which lies in an important archaeological site, has a more compact urbanistic structure, dominated by the castle. The castle is nowadays a private property, like the fortress of Filacciano.
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