Abbazia di San Cassiano (10th century)
Image copyright © William P. Thayer
There seems to have been a monastery here from a very early date.
An inscription on a small Roman sarcophagus found in the church [is it still there ??] mentions Crescentius and Abbot Orso; this suggests a link to Pope John XIII (965-72), who was an ally of the Crescentii and Bishop of Narni before his elevation to the papacy.
The earliest surviving documentary reference to the abbey dates to 1091, when it passed to the Abbazia di Farfa.
A second inscription [where in the church ??] records the rediscovery of the relics of "Beato Orso" on 5th April, 1100: he was presumably the abbot recorded in the first inscription and may well have been the founder of the abbey.
Circumstantial evidence points to a much earlier foundation on this site:
St Cassian, the titular of the church, was probably St Cassian of Autun (died ca. 350), who was reputed to have been Bishop of Orte before moving to France.
The Byzantine general Belisarius built a monastery at Orte dedicated to St Juvenal of Narni in ca. 537; it is quite possible that he also built another on this site dedicated to St Cassian of Orte. These "twinned" monasteries on Via Flaminia would have protected part of the Byzantine corridor through Lombard territory that linked Ravenna and Rome.
The
church that was built (or rebuilt) in the 10th century was on a Greek
Cross plan. In 1334, its lateral extremities were demolished and it
was converted to a Latin Cross with a nave and two aisles.
The church and monastery were enclosed in a wall with battlements in the 15th century. The abbey passed in commendam to Cardinal Berardo Eroli
in 1453: the presence of the Eroli arms on one of the bifore windows of
the campanile suggests that it might date to the period of Cardinal
Eroli's commendam.
Ownership
of the abbey was contested between the bishops of Narni
and a series of would-be commendatory abbots from the 16th century.
The monks moved away and the abbey fell into disrepair, a situation
that was not reversed when it passed into private
ownership in 1849. The ruined abbey was
appropriated by the Italian Government in 1960 and restored in the
period 1963-70. It now houses two small Benedictine communities, one
male and one female, [and its church is open for Mass on Sundays].
Architecture
A
flight of steps leads up to the façade of
the church, which has a fine portal: the three-light window and three
small oval windows above have been reconstructed. The interior was
stripped
of its Baroque decoration during the restoration of 1963-70. The
foundations of the apsed right arm of the Greek Cross that had been
demolished in 1334 were found during this restoration.
Return to the Narni Scalo walk.