Abbey of Santa Maria di Sitria

Not far from the great abbey of Fonte Avellana, in the valley of the river Artino, in an extremely isolated position, stands the abbey church of Santa Maria di Sitria. According to historians it was founded at the beginning of the 11th century by St. Romuald, who lived here for some years. What remains of the ancient monastery is concentrated in the church building, while the remains of the convent structures, now present only on the north side of the present church, are by now seriously neglected and show clear signs of recent rebuilding. It is therefore difficult to identify the ancient Romanesque structures among the substantial “post-medieval” interventions. The church has a basilican plan with a single nave and projecting transept, and a raised presbytery covered by a pointed vault (scholars link this building solution to the vaulting in the nearby abbey church of the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, datable to the late 12th century); the crypt is attributed to the first building phase (11th century), “with a vault resting on a single column with a Corinthian capital of the Roman period”. Moreover, from the scholars’ accounts it emerges that “of the conventual buildings only one side of the cloister remains, and on the ground floor there survives a large hall with a pointed vault, perhaps the ancient chapter house, now reduced to a storeroom”. Unfortunately it was not possible to verify these architectural details, since the building was closed. Like Fonte Avellana, this monument too is surprising for its location, in a remote spot of the valley. The church is nonetheless striking for its very considerable size, if one considers the place where it was built. Only a partial external visit was possible, of the façade and a stretch of the north side: the building has an east-facing end, with a large semicircular apse in white stone, without decoration. The north side has a transverse body (pseudo-transept?) that recalls the plan of pre-Carolingian churches with three naves (for example San Salvatore in Brescia, 7th century), although here there is no trace of other terminal apses. The north side shows clear signs of different building phases; in particular, three massive, equally spaced buttresses articulate the side of the church towards the façade, which appears very flat, without decoration. Other buildings are attached to the church on the south side but, from the outside, they certainly seem to date from a later period than the church and to be very different, both in the materials used and in the building technique.