Monastery of Santa Croce di Fonte Avellana

In the valley that descends from Catria and joins the high Val Cesano is enclosed the monumental Monastery of Fonte Avellana where hermits and monks for more than a thousand years retreat in prayer and meditation away from civilization and in close contact with nature. Its origins lie at the end of the tenth century when some hermits built the first cells of the hermitage that will become the current monastery over the centuries. The spirituality of these hermits was influenced by the father of the Camaldolese Benedictine Congregation, San Romualdo di Ravenna, who lived and worked between the X and the XI centuries in the surrounding areas. Inside the Monastery the Scriptorium reminds us of the place where the Amanuens transcribed the ancient texts, an ancient library preserves the code "NN" (a breviary with the first modern written musical form), the Basilica of the Holy Cross preserves a fragment of the cross of Christ. An integral part of the monastery is the botanical garden.