Teramo: Monastic Middle Ages

.. Among miracles, apocryphal tales of Jesus' and Mary's  life,  you'll discover the meaning of the term gradalis. Visit to the most beautiful sites of the monastic MiddleAge in the Teramo Province.

In the Middle Ages the religious, economic, cultural and artistic activities were concentrated in the abbeys and in the related community of monks who were carriers of these wisdoms. The cultural and economic reconstruction of Europe between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries was due in large part to the religious communities, through the perpetuation and development of agricultural techniques, the trade of products of the land and the orders of artwork.
The abbeys, great examples of this historic period, are still  visible in Teramo area.

The tour will start from the areas adjacent to the Adriatic sea where is Santa Maria di Propezzano with an architecture characterize by different styles and different construction phases. The foundation of the church is connected to a eighth century legend that tells  about a  miraculous happened to some pilgrims returning from Palestine. this legend is depicted on the three-fifteenth-century frescoes inside the church.

Not far away stands the Abbey of San Clemente al Vomano, founded around the middle of the ninth century by the royal family. The monastic site is enriched with oriental decorations made by master Roberto and master Ruggiero, whose identities are still a mystery but whose artistry is imprinted in the decorations of the beautiful ciborium inside the church.

The route continues to the turning of the Mavone river and will take us to the Abbey of Santa Maria di Ronzano whose architectural style is higly characterized by  the Romanesque style. The structure of the church is the classic one of the Benedictine churches with three naves ending in apses on which plaster is preserved one of the most extraordinary examples of medieval religious painting.

If you wish you can have lunch in a local typical trattoria and then go on to visit the Abbey of San Giovanni ad Insulam, of which today you can see only the outside.

On our way back we'll visit the Montecchia oil mill. Gennaro and Massimiliano will guide us to disocver their delicious extra virgin olive oils.