Apiro - Abbazia di Sant'Urbano

The Benedictine abbey is mentioned for the first time in 1033.

The foundation of the monastery complex can be located between the 10th and 11th centuries. An inscription engraved in the ancient high altar bears the date 1086, probably the year of its consecration.

In 1226 the church was partially destroyed when there were violent clashes between the abbot and the community. After the reconstruction it became one of the stopping points for pilgrims on their way to Rome. In 1441 the abbey became part of the Camaldolese congregation for about two centuries. It was abandoned and sold in 1810. In the second half of the 19th century the abbey was transformed into a farm. In 1966, by the will of the last private owner, the abbey and its properties were inherited by the municipality of Apiro.

Although the church has been desecrated for centuries and used as a farm building, it is, thanks to a recent renovation (also with EU funds) in a really very good condition.

The crypt.

For about 1,000 years, every May 25 - St. Urban's patron saint's day - and every July 19 (by symmetry with respect to the summer solstice), in the early morning hours, a ray of light enters, from an eye located above the apse, passes through the abbey, and reaches a circle, carved in the stone of a column in the left aisle, overlapping it completely. The event begins at 7:15 a.m. and ends at 7:41 a.m.

At the same time, the phenomenon also occurs here inside the crypt, where a ray of light, entering through the window behind the altar, strikes a circle carved into the base of one of the columns, the only one with a circular base.