Abbazia di Santa Croce di Sassovivo (11th century)
Abbot Mainardo left Santa Maria di Sitria, outside Gubbio in ca. 1077 to found a hermitage here on the site of a fortified residence of the Monaldi family. The first church here, Santa Maria della Valle (or del Vecchio), was destroyed in the 13th century. Its crypt survives, and is now known as the Cripta del Beato Alano (see below).
The church and monastery of Santa Croce di Sassovivo that grew up on the site of the hermitage accumulated a vast patrimony. Pope Innocent II defined the extent of the territory of the abbey and its boundaries with that of the diocese in 1138. At that time, it owned 34 churches and 5 chapels that were located over a wide area (including outposts at Perugia and Rome), and a century later its possessions included 97 monasteries, 41 churches and 7 hospitals.
The abbey passed to the Olivetans in 1436, and in 1467 Pope Paul II began the dispersal of many of its holdings. The complex was suppressed in the Napoleonic era and when the monks returned in 1803, they found it beyond restoration. Pope Pius VII closed it in September of that year, and it was then abandoned. It was stripped of its remaining possessions in 1860. Part of the complex passed to the diocese and the rest into private hands.
A small group of monks from Prague found refuge here in 1951-7. Since 1979, the complex has belonged to the Piccoli Fratelli di Jesus Caritas.
Cripta del Beato Alano (11th century)
If you are walking from Pale, you will see this loggia (1442) on your left about 100 meters before you reach the abbey. It is built over a ruined crypt known as the Cripta del Beato Alano. This is all that remains of the original church of Santa Maria della Valle.
The Blessed Alan of Sassovivo was an Austrian monk who joined the monastery after a visit to Rome in the Holy Year 1300. He left to become a hermit in 1311 and died two years later. His feast day is 18th July.
Continue down the road to the entrance to the abbey.
Church
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The church was largely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1832.
A fragment of a fresco (14th century) of a bishop saint can be seen inside what is now an empty frame on the altar wall.
The cloister is reached from the atrium of the church.
Cloister (1229-32)
The cloister consist of 128 colonnettes in two orders supporting 58
Romanesque arches and a classical lintel made by coloured marble and
mosaics from Rome. An inscription on the central arch on the south side (to the left in this illustration) records that Abbot Angelo commissioned it from Maestro Pietro de Maria da Roma. He carried out the work at the monastery of the Santi Quattro Coronati at Rome, which was subject to Sassovivo, and the components were transported by river to Orte and then overland.
The eastern wing was added in 1314.
The cistern dates to 1340 and was restored in 1623.
Maestà (13th century)
This fresco is in a niche in the eastern wall of the cloister.
Monastery
The entrance to the cloister at right angles to that from the church is signed to the Cripta di San Marone. Follow the sign, with the damaged side of the main monastery building on your right. which is undergoing major restoration (May 2008) after the earthquake of 1997. Turn back on yourself (through the arch to the right in this illustration) to see the Loggia del Paradiso.
Loggia del Paradiso (early 15th century).
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This loggia looks out on the inner courtyard of the monastery.
Fragments of monochrome frescoes, which are attributed to Giovanni di Corraduccio called Mazzaforte, survive inside.
Continue to the Cripta di San Marone.
Cripta di San Marone
This is is one of very few religious place in Europe that are dedicated to St Maron, a hermit from Antioch who died in 410 and whose disciples founded the Maronite Church. According to tradition, Michele degli Atti, Conte di Uppello acquired the skull of St Maron when he was on crusade in 1096 and gave it to the new abbey, which was built on his land. Sadly, the reliquary was stolen from the crypt in 2005.
There is an animated bronze statue (2006) of Blessed Charles de Foucauld in the crypt. He was a Trappist monk who lived as a hermit in North Africa and was assassinated in French Algeria in 1916. He inspired a number of eremerical communities, including the Piccoli Fratelli di Jesus Caritas at Sassovivo.
Return to the page "around Foligno".