Centro Informazioni del Parco della Majella — Serramonacesca

The park's Serramonacesca centre lies inside the precinct of the abbey of San Liberatore a Maiella, near rock-cut tombs, medieval fortified sites and a hermitage in the Alento valley.

Why it matters

The centre stands within the walled precinct of San Liberatore a Maiella, a Romanesque abbey. The Alento springs and archaeological sites in the valley form part of the area's heritage landscape.

What to notice

The centre is within the abbey precinct. Nearby heritage includes the Benedictine abbey, whose origins date to the first decades of the eleventh century; rock-cut burial complexes along the Alento and a Santa Maria site; the fortified sites of Torre Polegra and Castel Menardo; and the hermitage of Sant'Onofrio. The abbey and hermitage are connected by the park's sentiero dello Spirito.

Context and history

The abbey beside which the centre operates grew from a monastic community attested on the site by the late ninth century. After an earthquake brought the complex down in 990, the priore Teobaldo, sent from Montecassino, rebuilt the church and consolidated the abbey's estates in the early eleventh century; the three-portal facade, the ambo of about 1180 and the mosaic pavement of the central nave dated 1275 record the centuries of that prosperity. Under later commendatario abbots the monastery declined until the Napoleonic suppressions of 1808, and twentieth-century restoration returned the building to its Romanesque form.

The information centre is part of the park authority's network across the Maiella municipalities. The sentiero dello Spirito links religious sites on the Majella and Morrone, including hermitages associated with Celestino V.