Centro Informazioni del Parco della Majella — Roccamorice

Roccamorice is closely associated with the Celestinian hermitages of Santo Spirito a Maiella and San Bartolomeo in Legio, religious sites set within the mountain landscape of the Majella.

Why it matters

The hermitages connect the region with Pietro Angeleri, later Pope Celestine V, and the beginnings of the Celestine order. Their setting preserves the relationship between religious retreat, pastoral life and the remote caves and cliffs of the Maiella.

What to notice

Santo Spirito combines later church buildings with an older hermitage core, including a chapel and small cells associated by tradition with Pietro Angeleri and his first followers. San Bartolomeo in Legio is another important Celestinian site, set into the rock landscape. Dry-stone pastoral huts and traces of bitumen mining and wartime use reveal other histories of the area.

Context and history

Pietro Angeleri lived as a hermit in the Maiella before being elected Pope Celestine V in 1294. Santo Spirito became closely associated with the Celestine community and was rebuilt in successive periods. The surrounding landscape also records pastoral activity, bitumen extraction and the presence of a prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War.