The village of Poggio Lavarino

The small village of POGGIO LAVARINO gathers around the bell tower that stands in the highest part of this hamlet of the Valserra. If today this tower is its distinguishing feature, in past centuries, especially in medieval times, it constituted a strategic lookout point on the roads that connected Terni and Spoleto. Although the residential nucleus formed around this functional structure starting from the fourteenth century, there are "clues" that suggest that there had already been a settlement in this place in Roman times - reused materials from this period are visible in the wall structures of some houses. Just as it is certain that a Benedictine monastic community lived on the spot. Some seventeenth-century documents refer to the "House of San Benedetto" located inside the town and which, according to tradition, was the home of the saint monk. Still in the seventeenth century one of the altars of the village church was dedicated to the founder of the monastic order, whose name is also found in some place names. For example, in the locality “la Cargara”, near the village, flows the “fosso di San Benedetto”; in this area also remain the ruins of the monastery of "San Benedetto de Calcharia" referred to in various medieval documents. Another landmark of Poggio Lavarino is the Church of San Bernardino, adjacent to the tower. The interior, which is a remake of that of the original building, presents in the small apse a fresco dating back to the end of the 16th century in which the Madonna and Child are portrayed and San Bernardino to his left - whose image is however incomplete - and San Benedetto on the right side.

Poggio Lavarino is one of the many historic villages that dot the Serra stream valley. These were built as fortified centers during the Middle Ages to exercise strategic control over a border area between Terni and the territory of Spoleto. This historical-cultural heritage is part of a context of great natural beauty dominated by the green of the lush vegetation. The Valle del Serra is in fact an area of great environmental value in the Terni area, which can also be discovered by following the hiking trails that cross it, some of which lead up to the highest mounts of this zone.

 

 

Revised Google translation