Sabbio Chiese

A fortress symbol of resistance and spirituality

In the province of Brescia, halfway between Lake Garda and Lake Idro, it opens onto a basin with terraces of sand and boulders lying on the sides of the Chiese river: you are in Sabbio Chiese, a municipality in the Sabbia Valley whose name seems to derive from the Latin sabulum, sand, in reference to the position on the river. 

An area inhabited since ancient times, as evidenced by some flint tools, Neolithic objects and evidence of the passage of Etruscans, nets and Celts. Becoming the center of Roman domination in the valley and the scene of numerous historical events, Sabbio Chiese boasts an immortal symbol: the Rocca, placed a cliff of Dolomite rock, with a breathtaking view of the Sand Valley. 

Built between the ninth and tenth centuries, it was a military fortress that gave refuge to the Sabeans from the invasions of the Middle Ages and from the subsequent clashes between Guelphs and Ghibellines. Occupied by the Ghibellines and then returned to the Guelphs, in the fifteenth century it was a spectator of the conflict between the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice to be transformed in 1527 into a sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna and, in 1588, into an unconsecrated oratory. Today a building of worship and prayer, it is divided into two overlapping churches, both dedicated to the Annunciation.