Fara San Martino, Chieti. San Martino in Valle Abbey

2023

The abbey of San Martino in Valle is a ruined Benedictine abbey near the Gole di Fara San Martino in Fara San Martino in the province of Chieti. The first historical sources on the Church located inside the Castle of Rocca S. Martino date back to 829 which list it among the possessions of the monastery of Santo Stefano in Lucania of Tornareccio, to which it had been donated by Pepin the Short. In 844 it passed under the control of the bishop of Spoleto and subsequently among the possessions of the abbey of San Liberatore a Majella. In 1044 the Theatine count Credindeo on his deathbed and for the redemption of his soul and his loved ones (recalling the capitulars of the Longobard king Liutprando) donated the church to the venerable priest Isberto so that he could endow it with an independent Benedictine monastery. In 1172 it became part of the diocese of Chieti. In 1222 Pope Honorius II confirmed the donation of Count Credindeo. The monastery was suppressed in 1452 by Pope Nicholas V and united with the Vatican Chapter, to return in 1789 to the archdiocese of Chieti. The definitive abandonment of the monastery took place on 8 September 1818 due to a flood that covered it with debris. The first excavations for its recovery took place in 1891, but only with those of 2009 were the remains of the structure fully brought to light. The remains of the abbey show a gate to an internal courtyard bordered by a three-arched portico, on the north side of which is a bell gable. The interior of the church had to have three naves with stone slab flooring. A wall with three arches separates the central nave from the northern one, from where one enters what must have been the initial nucleus of the church, dug into the rock, which suggests the birth of the place of worship as a hermitage.

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Abruzzo is an Italian region located east of Rome, between the Adriatic and the Apennines. The hinterland consists largely of national parks and nature reserves. The region also includes medieval and Renaissance villages perched on the hills. The regional capital, L'Aquila, is a walled city, damaged by the earthquake of 2009. The Costa dei Trabocchi, with its sandy coves, takes its name from the traditional fishing piers.

Fara San Martino. The Gorges of San Martino

the Gole di San Martino opens with a narrow passage from the high rocky walls on the eastern slope of the Maiella, just outside the town of Fara. This is the beginning of the gorge-like valley that leads to the highest peak of the Maiella, Monte Amaro (2793 m), and includes the wildest territories of the entire massif with a 14 km long route and a difference in height of 2300 m . It can be divided into three parts: the Valle di S. Spirito, the Valle di Macchia Lunga and the Val Cannella. The latter ends with a glacial cirque in the center of which is the Manzini refuge. According to popular tradition, these suggestive gorges, just 2 m wide and about 30 m long, were opened by San Martino with the strength of his arms to allow the people of Fares to access the high pastures of the Majella more quickly. After walking a few meters, you can see the monastery of San Martino in Valle which an archaeological excavation has recently brought to light. In reality, this remarkable scenario was produced by the erosive and incessant action of the torrential waters coming from the melting of the surrounding snowfields during the Quaternary, in particular during the glaciations. With an evident franapoggio stratification that highlights the oldest terms as you go up, the oldest rocks of the Maiella emerge here, represented by beige-hazelnut platform limestones dating back to the lower Cretaceous. They contain fossil remains of algae and benthic foraminifera. Near the monastery, it is possible to observe an outcrop full of rudists, lamellibranchs who build cliffs now extinct but clearly visible in Maiella on Cima Murelle.

P.N.A.L.M. - Part I

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