Rocca di Cambio AQ - Abbazia di Santa Lucia 03

The Abbey of Santa Lucia is an 11th-12th century, Romanesque and Gothic-style abbey in the ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' of Rocca di Cambio, region of Abruzzo, central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

History

The abbey is mentioned for the first time in an inventory of the diocese of L'Aquila in 1313. However, it was likely built during the 11th-12th century, in a time where numerous monasteries were being built in Abruzzo. It was located in a plateau crossed by the

Via Claudia Nova The Via Claudia Nova was an ancient Roman road, built in 47 AD by the Roman emperor Claudius to connect the Via Caecilia with the Via Claudia Valeria in central Italy. There is no precise information about the road's route: according to som ...

, between the ancient cities of

Alba Fucens Alba Fucens was an ancient Italic town occupying a lofty location (1,000 m) at the foot of the Monte Velino, c. 6.5 km north of Avezzano, Abruzzo, central Italy. Its remains are today in the ''comune'' of Massa d'Albe. History It was ...

and Aveia, near the town of Fossa. An earthquake in 1703 destroyed most of the monastic complex and the surrounding borough, and forced much of the inhabitants to move to what is now Rocca di Cambio and the localities of Terranera and Fonteavignone.

Description

The sober façade of the church has a Romanesque portal from the 15th century and a small rose window. The edifice is on the

Latin cross A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...

plan, with a nave and two aisles of nearly the same length, ending in a large presbytery without an apse. In the right wall of the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

is a 15th-century ciborium, with columns and capitals in Gothic-Renaissance style, while the left wall houses a fresco of the ''Last Supper'', episodes of Jesus' life, and the lives of Saints. They date from Among the various figures portrayed in them, one has been identified as the future pope

Celestine V Celestine is a given name and a surname. People Given name * Pope Celestine I (died 432) * Pope Celestine II (died 1144) * Pope Celestine III (c. 1106–1198) * Pope Celestine IV (died 1241) * Pope Celestine V (1215–1296) * Antipope Ce ...

. Other frescoes, dating to the 14th and the early 15th century, are housed in the crypt.

Sources

* {{Authority control Lucia Romanesque architecture in Abruzzo Gothic architecture in Abruzzo Buildings and structures in the Province of L'Aquila