Labro (a frazione of approximately 430 inhabitants in the municipality of Labro, province of Rieti, Lazio, perched on a limestone spur at 660m altitude above the Lago di Piediluco, on the border between Lazio and Umbria) is the Italian hill village whose restoration story has become the reference model for the private rescue of abandoned Italian borghi (historic villages): in the 1960s and 1970s, as depopulation emptied the village (the working-age population migrating to Rieti and Rome for industrial employment, leaving behind the elderly and the empty houses), a Belgian family, the Alexandres, bought the entire village, restored it stone by stone over several decades using traditional materials and techniques, and created the most completely restored small medieval village in Lazio. The result: Labro is today a village of intact medieval architecture, inhabited by a mix of permanent residents and second-home owners who maintain the buildings in the restored condition, with the specific visual quality of a medieval borgo (historic village) that has been saved from collapse without being transformed into a tourist infrastructure.
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Labro: The Village and the Lake
The Restoration and the Alexandre Project
The Alexandre restoration of Labro (begun in the late 1960s, still ongoing in its maintenance phase) followed a specific methodology: the original stone of each building was preserved where structurally viable, the missing elements reconstructed using stone from the same local quarry, the rooflines and window proportions maintained at their historical dimensions, and the interiors modernized for habitation without altering the exteriors. The result isn't a museum village (the houses are inhabited and privately owned) but a functioning medieval settlement in which the specific quality of the Lazio Apennine vernacular architecture is preserved in its essential character. The Alexandre family created a foundation that continues to manage the restoration of communal spaces.
Lago di Piediluco and the View
The Lago di Piediluco (the lake visible 200m below the Labro spur, one of the largest natural lakes in Lazio, at 375m altitude in the Nera river valley, bordered on the Umbrian side by the Marmore waterfalls complex) is the specific natural context that makes the Labro position extraordinary: the view from the Labro village terrace over the lake, the Umbrian mountains beyond, and (in clear conditions) the Cascata delle Marmore smoke in the distance is the defining Labro experience. The lake (rowing championships venue. Piediluco has the longest regatta course in Italy) is accessible for swimming and kayaking from the lakeside village below Labro.
Q&A: Labro
Can I stay in Labro?
Yes, several of the restored houses in Labro are available as holiday rentals (the Alexandre foundation manages some. Others are privately rented through platforms like Airbnb). Staying in Labro rather than visiting for the day is the specific experience that reveals the village character: the morning mist over the lake at 7am, the evening light on the stone walls, the silence of a functioning village that isn't a tourist destination. The nearest town for supplies: Rieti (15km north) or Terni (Umbria, 15km south via the Cascata delle Marmore road).
