Located at the heart of Italy’s Apennine mountains, surrounded by oak forests, the town of Greccio is perched high atop one of the hills overlooking the Reatina Valley, also known as the Sacred Valley. 

According to tradition, a Greek family founded Greccio as a colony and settled down in this land after falling in love with the beauty of the surrounding countryside. Hence, the origin of the name Greccio, from the Italian “Greci”, meaning “Greeks.” 

The earliest records documenting this medieval town date back to the tenth and eleventh centuries. They show how from the remains of the ancient buildings, Greccio became a fortified medieval castle, surrounded by walls and protected in the middle of the forested mountains by six watchtowers. 

It was just 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away from the walled town that nearly 800 years ago the inhabitants of Greccio witnessed something simple, yet extraordinary, something that eventually spread across the world: the tradition of the Nativity Scene.