Scheggia e Pascelupo

torna indietro
Loghi in home Page                                                      
Scheggia e PascelupoFreccettaDiscover the cityFreccettaSurroundingsFreccettaThe Hermitage and Abbey of St Emiliano in Congiuntoli

The Hermitage and Abbey of St Emiliano in Congiuntoli

p16ospnjqh1fknrio1bsk149v190g3
p16ospnjqipi194v1alf1t8d1kld4

Travelling along the road from Scheggia in the direction of Sassoferrato, and crossing the wild and inhospitable Corno Pass, after a distance of 13 km one comes to an old Benedictine Abbey, standing on the right. The Abbey is situated at the foot of Monte Aguzzo, at the confluence of the Rio Freddo and the Rio Sentino. It is known as the Abbey of “Congiuntoli” (joining together) precisely because it stands near the meeting-point of these two rivers. As the monastery archives have been lost, it is not possible to know exactly when the Abbey was founded nor by whom.
In 1235, Bentivoglio di Trasmondo transferred many assets to the Abbey of Fonte Avellana. The Abbot of St Emiliano at that time was called Giacomo: he held possession of the Castle of Leccia, in the territory of Serra S. Abbondio (Pesaro). In 1274, during the time of Abbot Mainardo, the Counts Atti of Sassoferrato donated three castles to the Abbey of St Emiliano: Liceto, Montelago, and a third unidentified castle on the Apennnines. An anonymous author from Sassoferrato claimed in his 1753 “History of the City of Sentino” that there were Cistercian monks living at the monastery of St Emiliano up to 1596, at which time the Hermitage was suppressed, because there were only four monks and the abbot remaining. In 1439, the property of Conguintoli was annexed by the Cathedral Chapter of Urbino. After various vicissitudes, the Napoleonic suppression arrived and, in 1810, the Abbey was stripped of all its wealth. However, this period only lasted a short time and when Pious VII was released from imprisonment he restored the monastery’s possessions. A few years later, in 1836, Gregory XVI issued a papal bull, "inter multiplices", proposing the annexation of the Abbey to Fonte Avellana. The Royal Commissioner for Umbria, Gioacchino Pepoli, finally ended the life of the Abbey, suppressing it by decree on December 11th 1860. The land, woods, and all the buildings except the church and the bell-tower were sold to a private buyer.