The route of the Abbeys

Among the first areas of Italy to witness
the development of monasticism, the Marche
Region is among the ones that host the
largest number of abbeys. We invite you to
visit them, starting from the heart of the Region
and then proceeding down along the
Esino River, in a fascinating itinerary that
will lead you to discover magnificent medieval
churches, nestled in a rural landscape
reflecting the most authentic nature of the
Marche’s hinterland.

Chiaravalle (AN) - Via Abbazia, 30
It is located in the centre of Chiaravalle and it is the
first Gothic monument built in the Marche Region.
It was founded in 1172 by Cistercian monks in the
midst of a forest of holm oaks (in Italian querce castagnole),
from which it takes its name. Its estate,
which was partly donated by the Holy Roman Emperor,
Frederick Barbarossa, stretched all the way
to the mouth of the Esino River. This made it appealing
to both the municipalities of Jesi and Ancona,
which fought over this extended area for centuries
in vain.
The façade of the abbey is composed of a narthex
and an elegant rose window featuring a white marble
frame and twelve small radial columns. The interior
has a Latin cross floor plan divided into three
naves. Visitors should notice the brick-red colour of
the columns supporting the ogival arches that stand
out against the white walls, as well as the numerous
side altars mainly dating from the Baroque period.

Jesi (AN) - Costa San Marco, 11
It stands on a little hill at only a short distance from
the historical centre of Jesi.
It is thought to have originally been a Benedictine
abbey later donated to the Franciscan monks in the
second half of the 1200s, who modified both its architectural
and decorative design.
The church is structured into 3 naves, with the side
aisles lower than the central nave, which is not typical
of Franciscan architecture and in fact stands to
indicate that the church pre-existed the arrival of
the Franciscans.
As for the interior decorations, the church was enriched
in the first half of the 1200s with a pictorial
cycle of which the only remaining element today is
the Crucifixion in the apse, which was painted by
the School of Rimini. The rest of the present-day
decorations is consequent to restoration works carried
out in the mid-1800s by Architect Angelo Angelucci.
Lastly, on the external left-side wall, there is a curious
little window and a blind arch indicating the
existence of a bell tower in the past.

Jesi (AN) - Corso Matteotti
It is one of the oldest buildings in Jesi.
The oldest part is the apse, which dates back to the
end of the 12th century, while the rest of the church is
in the Gothic style and dates from the beginning of the
14th century.
For at least a century, the church was a knights Templar
Commanderie where the pilgrims headed to Rome or
Ancona would lodge. The presence of the Templars is
testified by two crosses sculpted at the jamb of the entrance
door and by the six-pointed star – the emblem of
the Virgin Mary – engraved on the wall of the left-side
aisle.
The façade is topped by two sloping roofs and decorated
with a Lombard band. The interior has three naves
with apses and mainly features cross vaults supported
by composite columns; instead, the side aisles are Romanesque
in style. The few existing frescoes, presumably
datable between 1000 and 1200 AD, are all that
remains of the old interior decorations.

Jesi (AN) - Via Santa Maria, 9

It stands in the area between the historical centre of Jesi
and the Esino River and is among the city’s oldest landmarks.
The church, founded in the 5th century, is the only
abbey in the province of Jesi that has survived through
the Middle Ages. Its architecture is neoclassical, with a
single nave, which however was created in a restoration
project begun in the mid-1700s that completely transformed
it.
In the course of its history, the building underwent several
changes that are particularly visible in the crypt, which
conserves artefacts dating from different historical periods.
Among these, there is a sarcophagus which is the
oldest testimony of Christian sculpture in the Vallesina
valley; three tombs, datable from between the 3rd and 4th
century AD, which is conducive to thinking that the church
was originally a funerary basilica; and the fresco featuring
the face of an angel dating from the 10th-11th century, probably
what remains of an Annunciation.
In 1300 AD, the church was restyled in the Gothic vogue.
It was originally built with three naves and an elevated
altar and the floor was lower than in the modern-day building.
The restoration work carried out in the 18th century
completely changed its architecture. Still now, it is possible
to see the old arches along the nave – subsequently
closed – embedded inside the right-hand wall.
Lastly, inside the church there is a granite column portraying
a Christ at the column painted in the 17th century
but that also reveals traces of an older painting.

Maiolati Spontini (AN) - Piazza Santa Maria delle Moie

It stands near the left bank of the Esino River, in the
centre of the town of Moie (a borough of Maiolati
Spontini), in an area originally rich in shrubby vegetation
(called molliam in Latin and moje in the local jargon).
The shrub also gives its name to the church and to the
town.
It is thought to have been founded at the beginning of the
11th century by the Attoni family. Over the centuries, the
Abbey came to possess several properties and owned
400 hectares of land in the 14th century. It suffered a crisis
in the following century and was sold to the dioceses of
Jesi in 1456. It was later elevated to the status of parish
church and endowed a baptismal font.
The church is Romanesque in style and is divided into
two sections: the forepart, featuring a square atrium and
the doorway, with archivolts decorated with Gothic-style
plant-inspired elements; the church proper has a crossed-
dome floor plan and three naves, with three apses at
the back and two on the sides of the church.

Serra San Quirico (AN) - Via Sant’Elena, 34

Located in the borough of Sasso (in the municipality of
Serra San Quirico), it is immersed in a hilly landscape
scattered with medieval villages. It was once the religiously,
politically and socially most important abbey in
the Vallesina valley. Founded by Saint Romuald around
1010, by the 12th century it owned sixty estates, including
churches, castles and villas.
The large Romanesque-Baroque building is designed as
a fortress church. Outside, it has an interesting Romanesque
portal featuring a lunette with a sculpted Greek
cross between two lion-like imaginary beasts representing
the force of evil being scared off by the cross.
The inside of the church has a basilica plan with three
naves divided by composite columns with decorated capitals.
Another interesting feature is the raised presbytery
characterised by a large semi-circular apse, and the crypt
below, divided into seven aisles.
Lastly, for the joy of the youngest, you cannot avoid stopping
to watch the group of deer kept in the enclosure next
to the abbey!

Genga (AN) - Via San Vittore, 5

Situated at the mouth of the Gola della Rossa gorge and
set in a magnificent landscape, it was founded by one
of the local families at the beginning of the 10th century.
Over the years, thanks to the donation of land, castles and
churches, it acquired great economic and political power.
It suffered a crisis in the 15th century and was eventually
even converted into a farm. With the closure of monastic
orders by Napoleon in 1810, the Abbey was handed over
to the Diocesan curia of Fabriano.
Its present structure probably dates back to the end of
the 11th century. The forepart is made up of two towers
and the narthex. The church’s floor plan is almost square,
featuring a crossed dome and five apses, three of which
are at the end of the naves and two along the sides of the
cross, and a dome that receives light through four single-
lancet windows.
Next to the entrance to the Abbey you will find the entrance
to the Speleo-Paleontological and Archaeological
Museum displaying the artefacts found in the Municipality
of Genga.

Genga (AN) - Località Gola di Frasassi

It is located in the Municipality of Genga, near the famous
Frasassi Caves. You reach it after a 700-meter walk
uphill, enabling visitors to have an amazing panoramic
view of the Gola della Rossa gorge.
The Hermitage was partially hewn out of a rock wall at the
entrance of a cave, giving a special appeal to a structure
that is simple in its essence. The building was first mentioned
in 1029 as belonging to the Abbey of San Vittore
and was also used as a cloistered convent.
Next to Santa Maria Infra Saxa stands the Valadier Temple,
commissioned by Pope Leo XII, who was born in
Genga, and whose uniqueness lies in the fact that it is
embedded in a cave. Inside the Temple was a statue of
the Madonna with Child by Canova, at present conserved
at the Museum of Sacred Art of Genga and replaced by
a copy.

Apiro (MC) - Contrada Sant’Urbano, 5

It is located in the municipality of Apiro (Macerata), in the
San Clemente Valley.
Built around the year 1000 AD, it exercised great power,
both religious and political, over the whole valley, which is
the reason why it came into conflict with the municipality
of Apiro, which partially destroyed it in the 1200s. It was
later rebuilt in the 13th century and in the 15th century it was
joined to the Abbey of Valdicastro, was expropriated by the
State during the Napoleonic period and was subsequently
owned by several families.
The interior structure of the Abbey is particularly original,
especially due to the presence of a diagonal wall dividing
the nave – created to host the worshippers – from the raised
presbytery – the space reserved for the monks – which
almost turns it into a separate church. The church also has
a crypt whose right-hand aisle was closed off to be used as
a cellar when it was under tenant farming. Another interesting
feature of the church are its capitals and its cornice,
which are sculpted with medieval symbols that constituted
the only possible way of transmitting Christian values to illiterate
people.
Another element of the church’s originality is light: not only
the light passing through the three single-lancet windows
in the presbytery which are positioned in such a manner
as to cast light on the altar in any season of the year, but
especially the rays of light that produce Saint Urban’s “luminous
eye phenomenon”. Every year at 7:40 a.m. on 25th
May, the day celebrating the patron saint, and at 7:50 a.m.
on 19th July, a beam of light enters the church from an hole
above the apse and falls exactly on a circle carved on a
pillar in the nave. Simultaneously, in the crypt, a beam of
sunlight passes through the window behind the altar and
hits a circle carved at the base of a column.

Church of Santa Maria degli Aroli
(Monsano)

The church, in the Romanesque-Gothic style, is very
small. The interior walls are plastered and are covered
by a roof truss and the apse hosts fresco decorations
dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The tripartite
façade is dominated by a narthex featuring small columns
and lightly sculpted sections.

Abbey of Sant’Apollinare
(Monte Roberto)
It is most likely to be the oldest abbey of the Vallesina valley.
It is dedicated to Saint Apollinaris, the bishop of Ravenna,
and in fact makes reference to the domination of
Byzantine Ravenna in the 6th-7th century over a territory
that marked the border between the Byzantines and the
Lombards. The Abbey has recovered its authentic Romanesque-
Gothic architecture thanks to recent restoration
works and hosts a 1508 fresco in the apse, attributed to
Arcangelo di Andrea di Bartolo da Jesi.

Hermitage of the White Friars
(Cupramontana)
Situated in the Gola del Corvo gorge, between Cupramontana
and Poggio Cupro, it is also called “delle Grotte”
(“of the Caves”) because the monks originally inhabited
the natural tuff caves converted into places of prayer,
whose construction traditionally dates back to the early
11th century. The building is immersed in a forest that
visitors are advised to stroll through, both to capture the
atmosphere loaded with spirituality and to see rare botanical
species.

Church of Santa Maria del Mercato
(Serra San Quirico)
Built in 1289 in a location called “fondo del Mercato” (“bottom
of the Market”), it underwent several restoration
works and, having been deconsecrated, it now hosts a
theatre. The magnificent Romanesque bell tower, one
of the most impressive of the whole Vallesina valley, is
still perfectly conserved. The church presents a square
floor plan featuring two rows of single-lancet arched
windows and one row of mullioned windows, with little
travertine columns topped by capitals in between.

Church of San Paterniano
(Serra San Quirico)
The present-day structure dates back to 1473, although
a church by the same name was already mentioned at
the end of the 13th century. A feature of particular interest
is the Renaissance portal, whose architrave bears
the symbol of the Camaldolese Order of monks (two
doves drinking out of the same chalice), of the bishop
Saint Paternianus and the pontifical coat of arms. Inside
the church, there is a triptych on wood dating from
the end of the 15th century and portraying the Madonna
of Loreto, Saint Paternianus and Saint Lucy attributed
to the Master of Domo.

Abbey of San Salvatore in Valdicastro
(Poggio San Romualdo)
This is the only abbey in the Vallesina valley that conserves
the layout of a typical Benedictine building: the
church, the chapter room, the study and work halls, the
infirmary, the guest quarters, the dormitory, the storage
rooms, etc. It was founded between 1005 and 1009
by St. Romuald, who also died there. The crypt hosts a
sarcophagus of the Roman period that once contained
the remains of the saint, which are now conserved in the
Church of San Biagio in Fabriano. The building was restructured
several times and restyled in its present Gothic
style. Unfortunately it cannot be visited at present because
of the damage it suffered in the last earthquake.

Church of San Francesco
(Staffolo)
This Franciscan convent was originally in the Romanesque
style but was later often restyled although it
conserves the original design of the façade, with its impressive
stone portal. Another interesting feature is the
bell tower, which rests directly on the escarpment of the
walls and was probably built on a pre-existing defensive
tower.

Church of Sant’Egidio
(Staffolo)
Dedicated to Saint Aegidius, the patron saint of Staffolo,
the building is Romanesque in style and was restructured
between the 16th and 17th centuries. The entrance
is decorated with a beautiful 13th century white
stone portal with concentric arches engraved with plant
patterns. Inside, it hosts a polyptych attributed to the
Master of Staffolo, a late Gothic painter active in the
Marche Region between the 1420s and 1460s.