Just a few kilometres from Francavilla al Mare, around 45 to 60 minutes by car, you can visit unique places: settings of ancient Christianisation, places of prayer, meditation and refuge. These are Gli Eremi della Maiella. Easily accessible from the Francavilla Riviera, they offer a unique experience of spirituality, silence and unspoilt nature.
The most significant hermitages are located in the heart of the Maiella, in the municipality of Roccamorice: Eremo di Santo Spirito a Maiella and Eremo di San Bartolomeo in Legio.
The hermitage with the Abbey of Santo Spirito a Majella offers an awe-inspiring setting that seems to take visitors back in time. Built before the year 1000, the complex was later restored by Pietro Morrone, the future Celestine V, after years of abandonment.
A walk to Eremo di Santo Spirito becomes an indescribable experience from the very first moment. To enter the Abbey, visitors must pass through a narrow, dark but intensely evocative passageway, which leads to the well-preserved rooms of the building. The church interiors are picturesque and are still used for certain ceremonies. Exiting from the side, visitors reach the Scala Santa, which leads to the Oratory of the Maddalena, where the view over the valley is enchanting.
Near the hermitage, it is possible to practise free climbing on the wonderful Parete dell’Orso, while nature lovers can enjoy long walks or go trekking along the natural trails of the green Abruzzo hills.
Eremo di San Bartolomeo in Legio is one of the most spectacular Celestinian hermitages. Carved into the mountain and built after 1250 by the hermit Pietro Angelerio dal Morrone, the future Pope Celestine V, it was created on the ruins of an earlier structure.
The church and two small rooms intended for the hermits stand on a rocky balcony, reached by four stairways: one to the north, consisting of 30 irregular steps carved directly into the rock; one to the south, also carved into the rock but longer and more irregular; and two in the centre of the balcony, one of which served as the Scala Santa.
The hermitage is dedicated to San Bartolomeo, whose statue is placed in the niche of the altar and is lovingly carried in the arms of the faithful during processions.
A much-visited place of worship, particularly on the occasion of the procession on 25 August, it is also the setting for various penitential rites at a small spring of water, believed to be miraculous, which flows out of the church through a small channel before disappearing into the rock.
