The convent of San Giustino d’Arna rises on the hills crossed by the stream that bears its name, at the extreme northern border of the territory of Perugia where the road to Gubbio winds. Today remains the great Romanesque church, preserved intact thanks to the careful restoration of 1933.
Begun in the X century, the history of this place has been turbulent to say the least, among quarrels among abbots and fights for the control of its rich lands: it is enough to think that until 1578 the convent of San Giustino controlled 30 churches with the relative possessions.
The same abbot of San Giustino was the protagonist of a quarrel with his "colleague" of Montelabate because of the hill of Farneto. An episode that had a happy ending thanks to Saint Francis.
One day in 1218, the abbot of San Giustino went to Montelabate in an attempt to resolve the issue; on his way he met the saint and asked him to pray for him. The prayers had their effect: the abbot retraced his steps and gave the hill of Farneto and its monastery to St. Francis, with the approval of his rival.
With the decline of the Benedictines in the thirteenth century, the monastery was entrusted by the Pope to the most powerful monastic order of the time, the Templars, who managed it until the year of their suppression (1312).
Only a few years later another order came forward: the Knights of Malta took possession of the convent and its lands and are still the owners today.
