The story goes that Gaio Sabo, Sabine king, had a castle built near Norcia, called Sabello, today known as Savelli.

The Savelli family, one of the most famous families from Norcia  descended from Gaio Sabo and provided various saints, such as the archbishop, San Pellegrino, Santa Lucia and the martyr, San Gavino. The family also provided the church with six popes, Liberio, Eugenio I, Benedetto II, Gregorio II, Onorio III, and Onorio IV.

Situated on the far edge of the plain towards the south there are the remains of an older settlement with a castle, dominated by a stronghold. The buildings have been considerably altered or replaced. The parish church divides the settlement into three distinct parts.

Aerial photographs have revealed the remains of a probable castle at Castellano at an altitude of 875 m. In 1880 a little votive cabinet was found in the countryside of Savelli with fibula, votive figures, two copper rings coated in gold leaf and a collet of decorative sintered glass (Archaeological Museum, Perugia). Two Roman epigraphs are preserved in the church of San Michele. Paris mentions a walled epigraph on the façade of the home of Berardi.