The Valle Area and the Lombard Gastaldate
Valle, where the Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle now stands, was probably a marginal area in Roman Cividale. It is still uncertain whether it was included within the urban perimeter from the very beginning. More recent interpretations suggest that it lay close to the ancient walls, which descended from there towards the Natisone River, near Porta Brossana, the eastern gateway to the town.
What would later be the Gastaldate territory (seat of the Lombard official in charge of a royal domain) and the Monastery area appears to have been part of the village from the very beginning, although little is known about the earlier settlements. In the past, some finds were thought to date back to the Roman period. However, modern excavations do not confirm the presence of buildings from that era; there are only clear traces of settlements from the Late Roman and Early Medieval periods, beginning in the 6th century.
At this time, the Valle area became very important for how Cividale was organised. This may have started already in the Gothic period (early 6th century), and it certainly continued under the Lombards (late 6th to 8th century). Because it was close to one of the routes leading out of the town, it was a strategic place to set up a centre of power, following a pattern seen in other Gothic and Lombard cities.
A charter issued by Berengar I, King of Italy and later Emperor (late 9th–early 10th century), tells us that the royal Gastaldate was located in the place known as Valle. This means that in the Early Middle Ages – or at least from the Lombard period – the Gastald, the official responsible for managing the king’s property in Cividale and in the Duchy of Friuli, had his headquarters here. The area was therefore one of the key strategic centres of the town.
