Since the dawn of time, silence has enveloped the Abbey of San Pancrazio and still today it is a corner of prayers as it exactly was in 829, when it was built by the Benedictine monks, whose mission was ”Ora et Labora”, pray and work. This Abbey dedicated to the fifteen-years-old saint Pancrazio, a martyr in Rome in 304 a.D. during Emperor Diocletian’s persecutions against Cristians, has been enlarged along the centuries, a side nave and a cloister have been added. Abandoned and in decay over time, it has undergone many reconstruction works, yet it has always kept a halo of mystic sacredness by its late-Romanic traces, as it is possible to see today in the nuances of its stone façade which the sunlight makes dark red like the typical rocks in the territory of Roccascalegna.

The main gate is sober and elegant, decorated with simple freezes. The year of its rebuilding, 1205, is engraved on its lunette. On the right side of the monastery, the prayer silence melts into the peace of rest in the cemetery, where once was the cloister; there, another gate has been opened with a pointed arch which evokes the ancient luxury of the Benedictine abbey, whose possessions stretched into and whose yields from the plots came from a broad part the territory around.

Inside the church there are two naves, the smaller was added later. The main altar is in the original nave, where there are also traces of the former walls, the gothic arches with upper and lower cornices and the many changes are visible too.

The simple magnificence of the Abbey of San Pancrazio is enhanced by the solemn original Bell Tower on top of which there is a double-arched window with two bells. Their rings call for prayer: once for the Benedictines and today for those resting in peace in the shadow of cypresses.

[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Translation: Mirella Rapa | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]