The Fall of the Roman Empire left the Marche region defenceless when Lombard warriors from the Danube valley invaded central Italy in 568. They held loose control over much of central Italy, intermarrying with the local population and adopting local customs. Only in the northern Marche and part of Umbria did the Byzantine powers manage to keep a toe-hold under the protection of the Exarchate of Ravenna.
Christianity had already been introduced into the northern Marche by the beginning of the 4th Century with the arrival of St Leo from Dalmatia. But during the Dark Ages the people of the Marche were poorly placed to worry greatly about the finer points of art or architecture. Instead, it was these foreign rulers who were responsible for constructing a number of early churches and monasteries, built in an eclectic mixture of oriental Byzantine style with northern European touches.
One the earliest churches in the region is St Leo's own church, where he was buried - it lies beneath the later Pieve di San Leone at San Leo. Some remains of a 6th century church dedicated to St Lawrence can still be seen beneath the Cathedral of San Ciriaco in Ancona. Many smaller churches throughout the region were built using columns and other materials from nearby ruined Roman buildings and can still be seen today, though all of them were modified on one way or another during the Romanesque period and after.
Although the Lombards had been converted to Christianity by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th Century, they were regarded by later popes as unwelcome guests. It was Pope Stephen II who hit on the idea of calling in foreign help to oust them and in 754 Pepin the Short entered Italy at the head of his Frankish army. The expulsion of the Lombards proved difficult and it was only under Pepin's son, the great Charlemagne, that Lombard rule finally came to an end.
