Description
Fonte Avellana is one of the spiritual places in the province of Urbino, also known beyond the borders of Marche, since its history is linked with that of western monasticism.
Founded in 980, the hermitage was contaminated by the spirituality and philosophy of St. Romuald, the Benedictine monk who created the Camaldolese congregation. In the centuries Fonte Avellana has gone through different stages, from religious and social landmark, the suppressions of 1810 by Napoleon and in 1866 for the Unification of the Kingdom of Italy. Back under the management of the Camaldolese monks, Pope John Paul II in March 1982 raised the abbey church to the rank of minor basilica.
Today the Monastery has found its former glory, both spiritual and architectural. Arriving in Fonte Avellana, you can still admire the architectural complex today in excellent condition. The are many things to visit: the church in Romanesque-Gothic style of the twelfth century, the crypt, the chapter, the cloister, the refectory, the botanical garden, the scriptorium.
The scriptorium is definitely the most significant room of Fonte Avellana. Here the amanuensis monks obeyed to the Rule of St. Benedict about the daily work of transcribing on parchment ancient classical Greek and Latin texts, creating precious illuminated manuscripts. The hall is designed as a real sundial to beat the time on for job and for prayer. But there is more: the central sun beam is projected at different levels of the hall depending on the season: at the winter solstice arrives exactly on the front door; at the summer solstice arrives on the bottom rung.
Fonte Avellana, has always been a cultural landmark. The prestigious Library "Dante Alighieri", hosts more than 10,000 volumes, including precious illuminated manuscripts and ancient holy books. Here is kept the "Music Code" or "NN Code" a breviary that, according to tradition, is also work by Guido d'Arezzo or Pomposiano, inventor of the stave (tetragrammaton) and musical notation.
Many pilgrims stopped in the monastery of Fonte Avellana, among which we remember Dante Alighieri, who paid tribute to the Hermitage quoting it the Divine Comedy, Canto XXI of Paradise. To seal this relationship with the great poet, the locals placed 300 meters away from the monastery a stone slab on which is inscribed in Latin "resounding echo among these dense forests repeats the verses of the divine poet Dante. Try to recite one of the several immortal lines turned towards Fonte Avellana and an impressive eco will repeat the whole ".
For those who want to continue to explore this area, walking for about two hours you get to Monte Catria, a mount defined “with the head in the clouds" and that's why walking on this peak it has the impression of being closer to sky.
