Terre del Regno

According to a tradition – confirmed by Paul the Deacon in his Historia Langobardorum - the “great road” towards Italy of the hodgepodge of peoples gather round the core of Longobard power following King Alboin, began in 568, just after Easter.

This was the third great migration. As it developed, it marked a new and decisive evolutionary phase, reaching its peak with the birth of a prime root of European Culture. Such was the synthesis - achieved by Longobard civilization and favoured by the influence of Catholicism - between Germanic culture and traditions and their Greek and Roman, Byzantine-Oriental and Slav counterparts.

From the historical point of view, the period of the Longobard Kingdom of Italy coincides with the conquest of nearly the whole Peninsula, with the birth of the written law of the Longobard peoples, with the production of documents, with a season of new political and economic development in which - through techniques of reusing pre-existing architectural elements and reinterpreting classical forms - the monumentalization of power and faith was fully expressed by the kings and the members of the Longobard aristocracy, almost competing with one another. Today we may be surprised by the extent of the political and cultural growth and the results achieved in such a short space of time and despite the recurring external conflicts and repeated internal clashes. 

In a little more than two centuries, the Longobard monarchy was transformed from dynastic to territorial; 36 duchies were formed in various areas of the peninsula and, at the same time, a sub-system of territorial control of the power entrusted by the king and by the dukes to high-ranking officials called gastaldi (local identities originated from this division); the two main dynasties (the Lething-Bavarian and the Friulan-Beneventan that originated from the Gausi of Alboin) had the opportunity to hold power alternately, the major results being achieved by the former, which - thanks to the initial intervention of Theodelinda in agreement with Pope Gregory the Great - led the Longobards into the mainstream of the fruitful Catholic faith, reconciling the Three-Chapter Controversy between the Church of Rome and that of Aquileia and its suffragan Sees. 

The kings and the Longobard nobility were also active in the construction and strengthening of monasteries (where the surviving texts of classical culture were preserved) and they encouraged the spread of some cults, especially that of St. Michael the Archangel. The aristocracy was also engaged in the search for relics of the Saints, which they believed could protect the local communities and give prestige to the places where they were kept, as well as enhancing their identity.

Cluster list (those marked in   green   they are active, others in progress)) :