Farfa Abbey () is a territorial abbey in northern Lazio, central Italy. In the Middle Ages it was one of the richest and most famous abbeys in Italy. It belongs to the Benedictine Order and is located about from Rome, in the commune of Fara Sabina, of which it is also a hamlet (It. frazione). In 2016 it was added to the "tentative" list to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as part of a group of eight Italian medieval Benedictine monasteries, representing "The cultural landscape of the Benedictine settlements in medieval Italy". History A legend in the 12th-century Chronicon Farfense (Chronicle of Farfa) dates the founding of a monastery at Farfa to the time of the Emperors Julian, or Gratian, and attributes the founding to Laurence of Syria, who had come to Rome with his sister, Susannah, together with other monks, and had been made Bishop of Spoleto. According to the tradition, after being named bishop, he became enamoured of the monastic life, and chose a forested hill near the Farfa stream, a tributary of the Tiber, to build a church and a monastery. Archaeological discoveries in 1888 find strong evidence that the first monastic establishment was built on the ruins of a pagan temple. This first monastery was devastated by the Vandals in the fifth century. Only a handful of sixth-century finds document the early presence of the monastic community. In the seventh century, a wave of Irish monasticism spread over Italy. The foundation the Abbey of Saint Columbanus in Bobbio. and of Farfa by monks from Gaul, about 681, heralded a revival of the great Benedictine tradition in Italy. The Constructio Monasterii Farfensis, which dates probably from 857, relates at length the story of its principal founder Thomas of Maurienne; he had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and spent three years there. While in prayer before the Holy Sepulchre, the Virgin Mary in a vision warned him to return to Italy, and restore Farfa; and the Duke of Spoleto. Faroald II, who had also had a vision, was commanded to aid in this work. At a very early date we find traces of this legend in connexion with the foundation by three nobles from Benevento of the monastery of St Vincent on the Volturno, over which Farfa claimed jurisdiction. Thomas died in 720; and for more than a century Frankish abbots ruled at Farfa. The Lombard chiefs,