Private Tours - Personal Guides

The storytelling of your guide, expert in art history and with regular license, will help you discover all the phases of this place, fascinating historical scenery and nerve center of Italian devotion.

Founded in 529 AD by St. Benedict of Norcia, it occupied the top of a hill on which there was a temple dedicated to Apollo. This important symbol of Paganism was entirely destroyed to make way for the Abbey: peace, so desired by St. Benedict, lasted a few decades just.

In 580, indeed, the Abbey was destroyed for the first time, due to an incursion by the ancient Lombards.

Again, in 883 it was the Saracens, this time, who razed the building to the ground.

There were many artists who, during the centuries, were committed to decorate or modify the Abbey, and many of these were of Neapolitan school and formation.

The closest catastrophic event to us, which caused irreversible damage, was undoubtedly the Second World War: in 1944, during the so-called Battle of Cassino, a bombing almost completely destroyed the Abbey.

The restoration began the following year, when the Allies helped to free Italy and Europe from Nazi-fascist violence: today we see the result of a masterfully executed work, which brought this place of the soul back to its original peace.