St. Felix Abbey

Today, the abbey looks like a set of several buildings dating back to different periods, which are placed on each side of the abbey church. The abbey is composed of three distinct sections: the Benedictine, the Augustinian, and an agricultural attachment, mostly built in white and pink limestone from the nearby village of San Terenziano. The church was built in one of the oldest places of Christian worship in Umbria, where St. Felix, who was a bishop martyred during Diocletian’s persecutions, had been venerated since the 4th century. This place was probably chosen between the 8th and the 9th century by a group of Benedictine monks who wanted to build a monastery, which was then enlarged over the centuries. Let’s start our tour from the Romanesque church characterized by a white and pink stone gabled facade (modified in the 16th century), a three-arched gate, and an elegant three-part arched lancet window decorated with a 4th-century capital. The crypt is the best-preserved part of the original structure and it’s also the one that has undergone the fewest changes over the centuries. This is the church’s real treasure and it could be considered one of the most fascinating crypts in Umbria. Behind the altar table, there is a travertine sarcophagus (5th-6th century) on five small columns, containing the remains of St Felix. The sarcophagus is made of stone and is decorated with geometrical patterns and two stylized animals: the first ones remind of the Classical period’s art, the last ones, instead, remind of medieval capital figures.