Sant`Angelo dei Lombardi, province of Avellino, Campania, Italy

Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi

It is a town (commune) in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy. Sitting on a hilltop near the Fredano river, it is home to a cathedral and a Lombard Castle. Originally settled by the Lombards around 1000 AD, the town was virtually destroyed by magnatude 6.9 earthquake on 23 November 1980, sometimes referred to as the Irpinia earthquake.

The cathedral was originally built in the 11th century and was rebuilt in the 16th century, and again in the 20th century after the earthquake caused the nave to collapse.

The town is home to a smaller church, the Chiesa di San Marco, which was also destroyed and rebuilt after the 1980 Earthquake. Nearby is the The Benedictine Abbey of San Guglielmo al Goleto

San Guglielmo al Goleto

Towards the abbey of Saint Guglielmo at Goleto: On the 6th State, following the other crossroad for Lacedonia and Amalfi, turning due south onto marly hills, one goes down along a small valley that leads to Ofanto: at 59.3 km, a small road (1 km) is encountered on the right that opens onto the abbey of Saint Guglielmo of Goleto: ( tel: 082724432, www.goleto.it) one of the most impressive and evocative monuments of the South of Italy. It was recovered after the seism of 1980 like numerous other parts of the area, amidst a period devoted to the complete renovation of the region's aesthetic.

Founded by Saint Guglielmo of Vercelli around 1133, the abbey was where the saintdom expired on 24th June 1142. Originally it was a double monastery, with incoming funds from the female region, which was known for its splendour in the Norman-Swabian age and at the beginning of the Angevin era. Then came the turbulent and unhappy events of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Just as the female monastery was abolished in 1505 (annexed to the abbey of Montevergine) the Goleto was definitively suppressed in 1807, whilst the body of Saint Guglielmo was moved to Montevergine. Since then, the monastic construct fell into abandonment and in complete ruin, halted only by works of restoration. From 1989, the abbey was inaugurated to the community devoted to Jesus Caritas.

The grand unison of the great walls: The abbey's domination of the countryside of the high valleys of Ofanto attract the eye of the traveller from far away. Past the edge of the first wall, one reaches the inside of the abbey, towards two large doors with curved points, that lead into two cloisters, inside of which various monastic fabrics are laid out. The cloister on the left looks onto the face of the two superimposed churches and the ruins of the main church, erected between 1733 and 1740 by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, which almost rests on the walls of the perimeter. By the side of minor church of the XII century lies a rectangular layout with two aisles depicting the purest Roman puglian style, also a bas-relief is inserted with the female figure of the roman age. Just as one leaves the cloisters, one rises to the main church via a steep slope of small stone stairs. Three brief but important inscriptions in characteristic of the gothic style are inscribed on the door, in the drums and under the small and highly finished rose windows, which date the constuction and the whole of the building to 1247 and 1255. The names of the abbesses that built it, Marina and Scolastica. Lastly, the name of the Saint to who the it was originally dedicated to and those of which were guarding the relics, was Saint Luca.
The inside of the church: if one were to attempt a replication of the plan of that if the minor church, it would be important to comprehend the difficulty of such a task, for the immense luminosity, the acuteness of form, the refined elegance and the perfect proportions, can only be regarded as the work of an artist and his masterpiece. The architecutural style of the Castle del Monte of Federick II comes close to the task with a contemporary reproduction. The development of the abbey within the second cloister, sees the emergence of massive forts, erected in 1152 by the abbess Feronia. Large marble blocks of funereal mausoleum attest to the roman centurion Marco Paccio Marcello, of the fourth Scynthian legion.