Monumental complex of San Vincenzo al Volturno

The Benedictine monastic complex of San Vincenzo al Volturno has an inestimable historical value, being the largest and best preserved early medieval monastic site in Europe. The monastery was founded in the eighth century by three young Benevento nobles, Paldo, Taso and Tato and with the he arrival of the Franks in 774 was directly subjected to the authority of Charlemagne in 787. The election of Abbot Joshua (792-817) marked the most important moment of the political and spiritual ascent, through a vast program of architectural reorganization which transformed San Vincenzo into one of the most important monastic cities in Europe. The complex not only had nine churches but also numerous workshops of refined craftsmen who excelled in goldsmithing and glass production, the finds of which are kept in the archaeological museum of Venafro. San Vincenzo was attacked and set on fire by the Saracens in 881. The reconstruction of the monastery will take place only at the end of the 10th century but at the end of the 11th century, due to the Norman threat, the monastery was transferred along the right bank of the Volturno, more secure and defensible (“San Vincenzo Nuovo”).

During the XIII-XV century the decline and disintegration of the monastic complex and its land properties began, which Pope Innocent XII (1615-1700) transferred in 1699 under the jurisdiction of the Abbey of Montecassino, from which it still depends today. the remains of frescoes remain, the marble floors, and the altars that restore the idea of architectural beauty and harmony, in addition to the "Crypt of Epiphanius", whose frescoes represent one of the most important pictorial cycles of the European high Middle Ages .