Subiaco, Italy Tourist Attractions

2km/1.25 mi southeast of the town center of Subiaco on the road to Ienne, situated above the River Aniene, is the large monastery of Santa Scolastica, with a fine campanile from 1052, founded by St Benedict about 510 and later named after his sister. In 1052 a second monastery was built here, and later rebuilt in Gothic style and in 1235 a third, with a Romanesque cloister with mosaic decoration. The present buildings are modern. The church of Santa Scolastica, founded in 975, was completely remodeled in the 18th century. In 1464 two German printers, Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Schweinheim, stayed in the monastery and produced what are probably the earliest Italian printed books.

1.5km/1mi east of the monastery of Santa Scolastica, is the monastery of San Benedetto or Sacro Speco (640m/2,112ft), built against a sheer cliff in a magnificent lonely mountain setting. Both the upper and the lower church are decorated with frescoes. The lower church has 13th century frescoes in Roman style while the frescoes of the upper church dating from the 14th-15th centuries are in Sienese and Umbrian style. The chapel adjoining the upper church contains a unique early picture of St Francis, who, according to legend, while he was staying in the monastery about 1223 transformed the thorns grown by St Benedict into the roses which still flourish in the monastery garden. In the cave in which St Benedict lived as a hermit until he moved to Montecassino in 529 is a statue of the saint by a pupil of Bernini.