Santa Maria di Corazzo Abbey

The Abbazia di Santa Maria di Corazzo was founded in the 11th century in a valley near the Corace River, today, within the town of Carlopoli. Originally a Benedictine monastery, the Corazzo Abbey was reconstructed by the Cistercians in the 12th century, and shortly thereafter would be where Gioacchino da Fiore became a monk and then, an abbot. There, he began writing La Genealogia (The Genealogy), his first of many works.

As a Cistercian Order, the Corazzo Abbey would have been self sufficient. From agricultural endeavors to the construction of mills, the monks worked tirelessly. To aid the fertility of their fields, they diverted the course of the Corace River, built an aqueduct and studied the chestnut tree, an important food source for the local population.

Through contact with the Knights Templar, the Corazzo Abbey is said to have housed precious church relics, such as a piece of Christ’s cross and a lock of Mary Magdalen’s hair. Another legend tells of the abbey serving as a hiding place for the Templar’s last Grand Master. In the Renaissance, Bernardino Telesio, the 16th-century philosopher and naturalist from Cosenza, found inspiration inside the abbey’s books and walls.

Plague, earthquakes, wars and schisms all contributed to the monastery’s decline over several centuries. The final blow was suffered during the French occupation when the Cistercian Order and the monastery were suppressed in 1807-1808. At that point, the abbey was stripped of its riches, a number of which can be found in area churches, such as the marble altar, holy water font and wooden candelabras in the Parrocchiale San Giovanni Battista (Parish Church of St. John the Baptist) in nearby Soveria Mannelli.

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