Abbazia di Santa Maria di Grottaferrata (Monastero Esarchico di San Nilo)

The Abbey of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata is a Byzantine-rite monastery founded by Saint Nilo of Rossano in 1004 and consecrated in 1024.

Why it matters

The abbey is a surviving centre of the Greek-Christian monastic tradition in Italy. Its community follows the Rule of Saint Basil and preserves Byzantine liturgy within the Catholic Church.

What to notice

The abbey church stands over the remains of a Roman villa, including a cryptoporticus. Its facade combines a Romanesque bell tower, rose window and carved portal, above which an eleventh-century Byzantine mosaic depicts the Deesis. Twelfth-century mosaics of Pentecost survive inside, and a fresco cycle by Domenichino portrays the life of Saint Nilo. A Renaissance portico and defensive walls reflect later phases of the monastery.

Context and history

Nilo founded the monastery in 1004, and his disciple Bartolomeo continued the community after Nilo's death. The church was consecrated in 1024. In the late fifteenth century, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere enclosed the monastery with fortifications and commissioned a residential palace. Baroque remodelling in 1754 altered the church interior. The monastery's library and museum preserve further parts of its scholarly and archaeological history.