Tourist Attraction in Fossacesia:
Abbazia di San Giovanni in Venere

The Abbey of San Giovanni in Venere is located in the municipality of Fossacesia. The monastic complex of San Giovanni in Venere consists of a basilica and a nearby monastery, both built at the beginning of the 13th century in place of the pre-existing small monastery. The church presents the classical structure of the Cistercian style basilicas, with three naves separated by pointed arches and wooden ceiling. The main façade has the portal of the Moon, all in marble, decorated with high reliefs and ancient materials of recovery. On the south side are the Women's portal (side entrance, is the one commonly used), also adorned with marble decorations, and the bell tower cut off, whose loopholes betray the use of the defensive tower that was made of it. Opposite the main facade, there are three apses, whose arched and mullioned decoration reveals a certain Arabic style. Under the high altar there is the crypt, in which the Roman columns stand out. The apses are decorated with frescoes of the thirteenth century. Under the main entrance is another room, built in the thirteenth century from the remains of the apse of the ancient paleochristian church. Traces of the present convent remain of the original monastery; it was an elongated rectangle structure, on four levels, with elevated access, rebuilt and restored during the Renaissance period. To the abbot Oderisio II we owe the thirteenth-century cloister that was held on three sides (mostly rebuilt in the first half of the twentieth century) with three-light windows with marble columns and a crutch abacus. On the three sides there was the 13th century Benedictine habitation and production complex, of which the current conventual area and part of the lower northern sector (closer to the entrance to the church), characterized by narrow loopholes (archers), remain visible. The reference to Venus derives from a tradition that identifies a pagan temple on the site of the current church. The only trace of this temple would have remained in the toponym Portus Veneris, which designated a landing place at the mouth of the river Sangro in epoch. A second reference to Venus is given by the fact that under the Abbey is located the so-called source of Venus, Roman fountain where according to a pagan tradition that existed until the middle of the twentieth century, women who wished to conceive a child went to draw water emerging from it. According to tradition, the first nucleus of the monastery should be sought in a cellars for Benedictine friars, with a chapel, built by a certain brother Martino in 540. In the twelfth century the abbey reached the peak of its splendor. In 1165, Abbot Oderisio II of Collepietro Pagliara started work on the construction of the new church and a much larger monastery. In the 12th century, Berardo da Pagliara, a man of Teramo origin and very well known for his humility and absolute dedication to prayer, retired to the abbey. In 1585, Pope Sixtus Quintus granted the abbey in perpetuity and what remained of his fiefdom to the Congregation of the Oratory of San Filippo Neri. In 1626, the Filipinos granted the religious jurisdiction of the abbey and of the countries that depended on it to the Archbishop of Chieti. Finally, in 1871, the new Kingdom of Italy confiscated the monastery and its assets to the Congregation. In 1881 the Abbey was declared a national monument and assigned to the same Filipinos in custody. From the fifties onwards, a long series of restorations restored the church and what remains of the monastery to us in good condition. The increasing diffusion in the cultural circuits has spread more and more the knowledge of the Abbey, mentioned also in the UNESCO magazines.

Attractions in Fossacesia