The Eremo di San Giovanni all’Orfento, located in Caramanico Terme within the Valle dell’Orfento I Natural Reserve in the Maiella National Park, is one of the most inaccessible Celestine hermitages. Pietro da Morrone, the future Pope Celestine V, and his disciples lived there between 1284 and 1293. Carved into the rock and dedicated to Saint John, excavations in 1995 uncovered Bronze Age artifacts and revealed the site’s original structure. The hermitage once included a cenobitic area, now destroyed, consisting of monastic cells, a pilgrims’ hostel, and a small church. The cave, accessible through a narrow passage or a wooden walkway, features two rooms: a rectangular chamber with wall niches and a vaulted space with an altar and small storage niches. It has a functional hydraulic system carved into the rock, collecting rainwater and runoff into settling tanks and a cistern, with an additional wooden channel for water collection.
- Address
Parco Nazionale della Majella, Caramanico Terme, SP22, Italy - Web
None - Visiting Hours
Always open - What to see
Ancient hermitage, landscape
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