Subiaco historical timeline

Among the first ancient settlers in the area were the Aequi, an Italic people. In 304 BC they were conquered by the Romans, who introduced their civilisation and took advantage of the waters of the Aniene.

Nero built a luxurious villa in the valley, and the artificial lakes made for it gave the place its name: in Latin Sublaqueum, "under the lake". The biggest of the three Subiaco dams was the highest dam in the world until its destruction in 1305. After the fall of the Roman Empire the villa and the town were abandoned and became almost forgotten ruins.

Around 494, Benedict of Nursia withdrew from the world at the age of fourteen and lived three years in a cave above the Aniene, supplied with the necessities of life by a monk, Romanus. From that grotto Benedict developed the concepts and the organisation of the Benedictine order. He founded thirteen monasteries in the sublacense area to house his first disciples, who came in part from the Roman nobility, placing twelve monks in each.

Of the thirteen only Santa Scolastica remains, initially dedicated to San Silvestro, which holds the title of Protocenobio of the Sublacense Congregation of the Benedictine order. The others were destroyed or abandoned. In the twelfth century the abbots built the sanctuary-monastery of the Sacro Speco above the original memorial of the saint.

In the ninth century Santa Scolastica was devastated twice by Saracen raids. In the tenth it received donations from a succession of popes that enlarged its territory, and in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, under papal favour, it became a sought-after fief for its economic and political power.

In 1465 the abbey became probably the first place in Italy to be equipped with a press for printing books, set up inside it by two Germans, Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz.

Continual struggles with the feudal families brought decline. Held in commendam from 1456, the abbey passed in 1467 to Rodrigo Borgia, the future Alexander VI, and afterwards to the Colonna, the Borghese and the Barberini.