An ideal stop to meditate and immerse yourself in nature is definitely the monastery of Fonte Avellana also mentioned by Dante in the XXI Canto of Paradise. This ancient hermitage hidden among the hills and mountains is located at the foot of Mount Catria enclosed in a basin surrounded by large beech forests.
The Abbey was founded in honour of the Holy Cross by a small group of hermits at the end of the 10th century. They settled in this area and built a small hermitage where they could pray, which over the centuries was enlarged and transformed into a monastery.
The most important founder of this community was Saint Romuald of Ravenna, father of the Camaldolese Benedictine Congregation. He preached his great spirituality between the tenth and eleventh centuries at Fonte Avellana, in Sitria, on Mount Petrano and in San Vincenzo al Furlo.
Fonte Avellana became a very powerful abbey both economically and politically, in 1392 it took the title of commenda, a community based on business.
The Avellanite founders, an autonomous congregation, in 1569 were absorbed by the Camaldolese monks.
The Monastery after various vicissitudes passed between various owners, from Napoleon to the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1935 it passed definitively to the Camaldolese Hermit Monks.
