The ancient Cistercian abbey of Santa Maria di Realvalle was founded in 1274 at the behest of Charles of Anjou to commemorate the decisive victory, with papal support, in the battle of Campo San Marco near Benevento (1266) over Manfredi and thus over the Swabian dominion in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The abbey, very rich in royal endowments, prospered until the Angevins reigned in Naples; but even before the Aragonese took over, an irresistible decline had begun, aggravated by the great earthquake in 1456 which largely destroyed its structures. However, it managed to survive until the suppression of the Benedictine religious orders and their derivations, ordered by Joachim Murat in 1808, with the seizure by the State of their assets and subsequent sale. At the end of the same century, following a bequest, the complex came to the Franciscan Sisters Alcantarine, who still live there. In Realvalle live together testimonies of faith that span over seven centuries, and architectural memories ranging from French Gothic, through the Baroque, until the nineteenth century and today with the New Chapel of Santa Maria di Realvalle by the sculptor / painter Angelo Casciello.
