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Between Terminillo and the Piediluco lake one finds the delightful village of Labro, known as the town of stone and surmounted by a medieval castle; the perfect place for a journey through time. Have you ever been to Labro?
A small village perched 630 meters in altitude, overlooking Lake Piediluco on one side, and Monte Terminillo on the other: we are talking about Labro, also known as the stone village seeing as, here, everything is built out of stone, from the streets to the squares to the churches.
The urban and building fabric has not yet been changed, partially due to geographical isolation, which has led to tourism being the pulsating engine that keeps this delightful locationalive, which has been awarded the orange flag. With the postwar period began the depopulation of the country, but at the same time this was the first village in Lazio to be fully restored. For this we must thank and appreciate the intuition of a Belgian architect, Ivan Van Mossevelde, who discovered the town and oversaw its redevelopment in the 1960’s.
Labro is located within the province of Rieti, on the border between Lazio and Umbria, in a landscape covered by centuries-old woods meet with lakes and rivers to create a combination that regenerates the soul in a quiet, out-of-town outing.
The village was built on top of a summit between the 9th and 10th centuries, dominating the Fuscello valley, crossed by the Rio Fuscello, a tributary of Lake Piediluco. Behind it stand the peaks of the Reatini Mountains, including the Terminillo, covered with snow throughout the winter. To the south, on the other hand, the Piana Reatina, also known as the Holy Valley, seeing as Saint Francis stayed in this valley for many years, founding four Franciscan convents.
Labro, with almost 370 inhabitants, is one of the many villages in Lazio that arose for defensive purposes in the Middle Ages; its castle, rebuilt in the fifteenth century by the Nobili, a noble family of the place, stands on top of the relief where, over time, the town developed. The rooms are still furnished as the building is still inhabited today by the Nobili Vitelleschi family. The castle of Labro can however be visited during a guided tour during which you can dive deep into the history of the place.
The current configuration of Labro is exactly the same as the original one: the village slopes down on the hill according to a stepped development. The first step, the oldest, is that of the Castle and the Tower; followed by the step of the noble palaces and, finally, that of the houses of the common people. The walls enclose the village which is accessed through three doors.
