Sirolo - Badia San Pietro

Already in the early Middle Ages this place, almost on the top of Monte Conero, was inhabited by several hermits who lived in natural caves or caves carved into the rocks. These hermits went to the mountains to found communities. In the early years of the 10th century, there were already two abbeys on the mountain. Two hermitages existed before the 10th century. The hermitage of San Pietro, on top of the mountain, began at the construction of the abbey back. In 1037, the Counts Cortesi , lords of the castle of Sirolo, gave the already existing church on top of the mountain to the abbot Guizemone, to found a monastery. In 1203 the hermitage was enlarged, a cloister was built and the church was renovated.

The church has a basilical plan divided into three naves, a projecting apse above the crypt, and a 13th-century bell tower on the right side.

The Benedictines experienced a slow decline so that in 1514 the Bishop of Ancona entrusted the church of San Pietro and the hermitage to the Congregation of the Hermits of Santa Maria in Gonzaga. After 1518 the Camaldolese occupied the caves and the church halfway up the mountain and clashes between the two religious orders began. When in 1558 a fire completely burned the roofs of the church of San Pietro and the adjacent rooms, the Camaldolese conquered the complex of San Pietro and restored it, equipping the church with a new Baroque facade in 1651. The Camaldolese remained on Conero until the abolition of the monastery in 1860.

The church was locked and what was left from the monastery is a posh hotel meanwhile.

www.hotelmonteconero.it/en