Abbazia San Pietro in Valle, Ferentillo Terni

History

When in the fifth century AD Anastasius I sat on the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire, faithful to the Monophysite heresy, many Syriac monks and hermits went on pilgrimage to Rome, disembarking in Ravenna, a city that belonged to the Emperor of Constantinople and then heading towards the city eternal for the Via Flaminia. Some of these hermits, with the authorization of Pope Ormisda, then stopped along the Via Flaminia or near it, founding hermitages or abbeys and this habit continued well beyond the end of the reign of Anastasio, especially after the conquest of central-northern Italy by the Lombards, who have long been turbulent allies of the Byzantines.

The valley of the Nera river, wild and sparsely populated, near the Via Flaminia, crossed by a connecting road to the Adriatic Sea but covered with woods and crossed by numerous streams, was a natural choice for some of these hermits; according to tradition, one of the most famous of them defined the Nera river valley as "a desert with woods and rivers".Obviously the comparison was not strictly geographic, but referred to the solitude and spirituality of the places.

The most famous of these hermits were Santo Spes and Sant’Eutizio, founders of the abbey of Sant’Eutizio a Preci, near Norcia. According to tradition, St. Benedict himself for a certain period, before leaving for Rome to finish his training, spent a period of study in the abbey of Sant'Eutizio and it was in this place that the idea of ​​regulating the monastic life. Among the hermits who settled in Valnerina there were Lazzaro and Giovanni, of whose life is​​know nothing, except that they had a reputation as great healers and took another hermit, James, as their disciple. Lazzaro and Giovanni settled in some caves on the slopes of Mount Solenne, in the Suppegna valley.

Legend has it that the Lombard duke of Spoleto, Faroaldo, who went hunting in the Valnerina, rested from the fatigue of the journey and, while he slept, St. Peter appeared to him in a dream, who ordered him to build an abbey in the places of the two Syriacs.The legend does not clarify whether it was Faroaldo I, the founder of the duchy of Spoleto, who probably lived in the same period as the two hermits, or Faroaldo II the saint, who led the duchy at the beginning of the eighth century. Presumably, even if there is no certainty, it was Faroaldo II who built the abbey of San Pietro in Valle in the places where the two hermits had settled, in fact, tradition has it that Faroaldo II undertook to build the abbey of San Pietro in Valle also enlarged the abbey of Farfa and the abbey of sant'Eutizio, making them numerous donations.

The construction of the abbey of San Pietro in Valle had great importance from a spiritual point of view, as it quickly became the main abbey of the Duchy of Spoleto, but it also had great importance from a political point of view, as the Lombard dukes they entrusted to the monks, who were the most cultured people of the time, large areas to administer.At the time, the rule in use was the Benedictine one, and so also the Abbey of San Pietro in Valle was a Benedictine abbey and followed the rule and customs of Montecassino. At a time of great uncertainty, in which poorly disciplined armies roamed Italy and illiteracy spread, the abbey was also a beacon of culture and spirituality for people who did not know who else to turn to. The Lombards were great warriors, but they certainly did not shine for kindness.

The Lombard king who conquered north-eastern Italy, Alboin, was assassinated by his wife Rosmunda and her lover Elmichi at night, with the complicity of a warrior of the royal guard, and gutted without too many compliments while trying to defend himself using a stool, his successor, Clefi, although not involved in love affairs, was likewise slaughtered, also by one of the warriors of his entourage.For ten years, following these events, the Lombards did not have a single king, and it was in the confusion that arose that Faroaldo I was called by the Ravenna people to defend the port of Classe and then, perhaps because it was unloaded without too many ceremonies, he plundered and then went with the booty obtained and his army to Rome, founding the Duchy of Spoleto and threatening the Eternal City itself.

In this climate it was increasingly difficult to find trusted men of culture who could administer a territory, and therefore entrusting more and more extensive land to monasteries seemed the simplest solution, as among the monks there were probably the most cultured people of the time and in taking their vows, they swore an oath of obedience and poverty. In addition to this, there was the constant danger that new conquerors would oust the current rulers or that a new duke would want to clean up the faithful of his predecessor, and therefore those who had acquired properties that allowed a minimum of comfort would be stripped of their belongings. and that these were delivered to people loyal to the new duke.

To avoid this risk, sometimes those who did not have enough armed men to defend themselves donated all their good to the monasteries, which no noble would have the courage to plunder, and in return they obtained for themselves and their descendants the possibility of administering the goods. donated in the name and on behalf of the donating monasteries, paying a fee, yes, but finding a certain shelter from the greed of new invaders. In this way the assets of the monasteries became enormous, and in particular those of the abbey of San Pietro in Valle, which came to administer territories located in today's Marche and Abruzzo.

Faroaldo II had a very ambitious son, Trasamondo, who was a fervent opponent of the policy of the Lombard king Liutprand, who wanted to centralize power in his own hands by decreasing the autonomy of the duchies. Trasamondo soon wanted to take the place of his father, who,  no one know whether voluntarily or not, abdicated by retiring to monastic life in the abbey of San Pietro in Valle, and from this, from the convents founded and the numerous donations made he had a reputation for holiness in existing convents.Trasamondo tried to oppose Liutprand who, according to the description of Paolo Diacono, was somewhat ignorant but a strong, intelligent and wise warrior, and therefore defeated the new Duke of Spoleto, who took refuge in Rome.

Liutprando appointed Ilderico as Duke of Spoleto, a name to remember as he ordered the construction of the famous altar frontal of the church of the abbey of San Pietro in Valle, one of the most famous Lombard works of art. The appointment did not bring luck to Ilderico, as Trasamondo, who was sheltered in Rome, as soon as Liutprando returned to Pavia, in agreement with the Pope and the Duke of Benevento, his allies, returned to Spoleto and killed Ilderico. Liutprando returned to Spoleto, defeating Trasamondo again, but this time the Lombard king had the foresight to conclude an agreement with Pope Zaccaria, meeting him personally in Terni, thus, years after having made the famous Sutri Donation, from which the Papal State originated , finally, relations between the Lombard king and the papacy were calm again.A stele commemorating the event is placed in the church of San Salvatore in Terni. In Trasamondo, all that remained was to follow his father's fate, he had to take his vows and also retire to the Abbey of San Pietro in Valle. When Liutprando died, Trasamondo tried to recover the duchy, but shortly afterwards he too died. Nothing changed in the importance of the abbey with the conquest of the Lombard kingdom by Charlemagne, however, things precipitated in the ninth century.

In fact, towards the middle of the century the Duchy of Spoleto passed to the powerful Spoleto family of Guidoni, who had great ambitions, well beyond the borders of the Duchy, while, in the meantime, the Saracens conquered Gaeta and began to undermine even Rome. Guido II, then Duke of Spoleto, seized the opportunity of the disputes between the last Carolingians and took over the Italian situation, attacking the Saracens and defeating them on the Garigliano, then forced Pope Formoso to appoint his son Lamberto first king of Italy and then emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and then successor of Charlemagne.Pope Formosus, who did not at all like the interference of the guidoni in Roman affairs, asked for help to the last of the Carolingians, Arnolfo di Carinthia, who came down to Italy in 896, was appointed emperor by Pope Formosus himself and heavily defeated Lambert, chasing him until at the gates of Fermo.

During the siege Arnolfo suffered a stroke and was brought back to his possessions in Bavaria, where he lived in precarious health conditions until 899.While Guido II had died before Arnolfo's enterprise and Lamberto died from a fall from his horse in 898, the Spoleto regained control of Rome but no longer had men with the same charisma as Guido and Lamberto. Even the widow of Guido II, Ageltrude, and Lamberto, shortly before his death, organized one of the most ridiculous events in Roman history, the infamous Synod of the Corpse. Pope Formosus was succeeded by Pope Stephen VI, elected by the Spoleto themselves after regaining control of Rome, Lamberto and Ageltrude convinced the new Pope to exhume the corpse of Formosus and organize a trial for unworthiness.The Pope himself took on the role of the accusation and Formosus's corpse was condemned, his fingers were cut off and thrown into the Tiber, where he was picked up by a friar who gave him another burial. Obviously in a few years this farcical process was canceled by Pope John IX. While the dukes of Spoleto were thinking first of conquering the imperial throne and the Italian crown, then of taking revenge on those who had defeated them, the Saracens had a free hand and opposition only from local lords, so they could freely dedicate themselves to their raids.

The Sabina and the neighboring territories, such as the Valnerina, were traveled far and wide by the Saracen raiders, who did not spare the abbey of San Pietro in Valle, taken, plundered and set on fire, as happened in the same period also to the Farfa abbey, then it was abandoned.In the meantime, in Germany Otto I of Saxony managed to establish himself as Holy Roman Emperor, who consolidated the empire after the last confused years of the Carolingians and managed to stop the terrible raids of the Hungarians. His son Otto II led the war to the Saracens in southern Italy, a war that had controversial results, but forced the Saracens to leave central Italy.

Following these events, in 996, Otto III went down to Italy to have the imperial crown confirmed by Pope John, and during his trip he had the renovation of the abbey of San Pietro in Valle started by the new Abbot Riutprando.Under the pressure of the emperors, the abbey was reborn large and splendid, the best Roman workers worked there, the church was enlarged and decorated, then the convent was rebuilt, becoming ever larger and more magnificent. Numerous defensive towers and small castles had been built in Valnerina during the raids of the Saracens, these military works were restored, others were built and slowly agglomerations were born around them which formed the basis of the current inhabited centers of the Valnerina.

After years in which the abbey administered a vast extension of territories, as in the rest of Italy, inexorably, numerous municipalities were born to limit its power.The monks of the abbey, strong in their spiritual authority, managed to juggle with the nascent local authorities while maintaining a large influence on the local people. For example, an agreement is known, dating back to 1186, whereby the abbot ceded various castles and land to the municipality of Ferentillo, who however undertook to take care of the defensive works to protect the abbey, which kept the fruits of the land sold.T

he abbot was therefore no longer formally the owner of forts and land, but could still count on the protection of the forts themselves and could administer the same land sold, even if no longer on his own. Among other things, this agreement mentions for the first time the castle of Umbriano, now abandoned and in ruins, which can be admired from the park and from most of the abbey windows.

The Duchy of Spoleto, meanwhile, had passed into the possessions of Matilde di Canossa, the most powerful woman in Italy, and was therefore allied with the papacy, even if formally maintained loyalty to the emperor. With the coronation of Frederick I of Swabia as emperor, things changed. During his first Italian campaign, in 1155, Barbarossa passed through Umbria, besieged and destroyed first Bevagna and then Spoleto, significantly diminishing the autonomy and authority of what was then the most important municipality of the duchy, and consolidated control imperial over the duchy.

In 1177 Corrado di Urslingen was appointed Duke of Spoleto, particularly close to Barbarossa, so much so that for some years the very young Frederick II lived at the court of Corrado, for a curious design of destiny just while near the favorite residence of Corrado, in Assisi, the young son of the merchant Pietro di Bernardone, the future Saint Francis of Assisi, took part in a war against Perugia by taking the imperial side, was wounded and following these experiences he experienced the mystical crisis that led him to rethink his life and to become the poor man of God.

In those years of intricate relations between the Empire and the Pope, the Duchy of Spoleto changed hands several times, in 1198 it became part of the papal possessions, then returned to the Empire and then definitively became part of the papal state in 1230 Following these events, the abbey of San Pietro in Valle was taken from the Benedictines of the order of Montecassino and entrusted to the Cistercians of the abbey of Chiaravalle di Fiastra, beginning to lose political importance and authority, but maintaining its spiritual importance intact. In 1302 Pope Boniface VIII also took the abbey away from the Cistercian monks, officially "for the licentious living of the monks", and entrusted it to the Lateran chapter.

In the abbey, now diocesan is no longer dependent on any monastic order, Benedictine monks of traditional observance returned; in fact, the Cistercians were always Benedictine monks, but with a rule modified by Bernard of Clairvaux for the monks of the abbey of Citeaux, who in the 11th century had initiated a profound reform of monastic life. Very little it's known about the fate of the abbey during the Avignon captivity, but it was probably very difficult to maintain control and peace of the territory, not surprisingly, before the Pope's return to Rome, Cardinal Albornoz, whose task was to prepare this return, filled the Via Flaminia and the surrounding areas with military garrisons and imposing fortresses, among which the most famous is that of Spoleto. In the fifteenth century, as well as the political importance, the spiritual importance of the abbey had also vanished, which in fact became an abbey in command and entrusted to the family of the Ancajani barons of Spoleto. Meanwhile the town of Ferentillo had grown and had become the center of a county, entrusted to the Trinci family from Foligno. In 1484, however, the Genoese nobleman Giovan Battista Cybo, who took the name of Innocent VIII, was elected Pope.

Food & beverage

Breakfast is served as a buffet in the ancient refectory of the Benedictine monks and, in the summer, it is served outdoors in the cloister smelling of jasmine. At the reception of the hotel there is a bar for hotel guests which offers local craft beers, wines, cafeteria, soft drinks and snacks. The restaurant is open every evening for dinner and on Sunday also for lunch.

Grounds & Gardens

At the disposal of the hotel guests there is a beautiful panoramic garden overlooking the valley. The garden has comfortable deckchairs and tables for a relaxing stop and / or a tasty aperitif. There are many hiking trails that start from the abbey to reach ancient neighboring villages. Famous is the San Francesco road and the Greenway.

Other facilities

Sala dell'Arco: Intimate room where you can meet to spend time with your friends. At your disposal, a well-stocked library, board games and playing cards. Cloisters: Large cloister (13th century) The large cloister is undoubtedly the most romantic area of ​​the monastery and exudes over a thousand years of history from every detail.

Restaurant: HORA MEDIA restaurant, the name already refers to the Benedictine origin of the splendid Abbey of San Pietro in Valle that hosts it. A place out of time, where you can regain possession of your time especially that linked to good food and conviviality. The dishes offered are all strictly based on seasonal products and all the delicacies that this beautiful region can offer!
Breakfast Room: Breakfast at the Charming Hotel Abbazia San Pietro in Valle is rich, delicious and genuine. Cold cuts, typical cheeses, honey and natural jams are among the aromas that are concentrated in the breakfast area.

Reading Room and Billiard Room: Welcoming and elegant environments to enjoy reading a good book and for all customers's moments of relaxation. In the reading room it is also possible to hold meetings and business meetings. The ancient Chapter room is now used as a welcoming billiard room.

Panoramic Garden: It was the ancient market where the monks bartered goods with foreigners. It is certainly the most fascinating part of the Monastery, whose view extends over the Valnerina and its majestic views of the medieval village of Umbriano, now no longer inhabited. One thousand six hundred square meters of park equipped with tables, chairs and deck chairs where guests can enjoy good wine in complete relaxation and harmony with nature..