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Pieve Santo Stefano
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Pieve Santo Stefano (St.Stephen) is the first town one meets when coming down from Monte Fumaiolo where the sources of the Tiber are located. Its origins go back to the period of the Roman expansion around the year 280 B.C.
At that time Pieve Santo Stefano was named Sulpitia, that means "supplier". As a matter of fact it was the main deforestation camp of the Val Tiberina as regards timber bound for Rome. The Appennines around this place were plenty of woods and streams rich in water.
No certain information on the origins of its contemporary catholic name was found. According to a legend, an inhabitant of Sulpitia named Stephen, who had unfortunately fallen into the whirling waters of a river in flood and who was about to be drowned, invoked the assistance of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who was much venerated at that time. The poor man was saved and all the citizens, grateful and confident, decided to put themselves under the protection of this Saint, changing the name of the village into the present one.
Notwithstanding the damages of war, it is possible to admire a series of beautiful buildings with stone or glazed (Robbiana) terracotta coats of arms.
Particularly noteworthy is the sixteenth-century Sanctuary of the Madonna dei Lumi. Not far from the village there is the Church of Colledestro, a small octagonal temple, which is the copy of an old building consecrated to the nymphs living near the river.
Pieve Santo Stefano is called the "City of the diary". Since 1984 it has been the seat of the National Diary Archive, the only institution in the world which gathers, studies and catalogues the memories of common people.
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