Serra Sant’Abbondio

Town of Serra Sant’Abbondio

Forecourt of the City, from 1 to 0721 730 120

Founded by the free town of Gubbio in the thirteenth century, it had a strategic importance as a place of defense and control of increasingly inaccessible and hidden, but shorter, between Umbria and the Adriatic.

Serra Sant’Abbondio in 1384 became part of the Duchy of Urbino and so in 1481 the Duke Federico da Montefeltro said assignment to Francesco di Giorgio Martini to build a fortress to defend the valley, of which the architect himself has left a detailed description in one of his manuscripts. Nothing remains of this fortress destroyed by order of the Duke Guidubaldo to save it from the conquest of Cesare Borgia, the “Valentino”.

Not far from the center, on the left bank of the river Cesano, is preserved in its original structure of the early Christian crypt of San Biagio the fourth or fifth century Hotel, was built with Roman finds from a pagan temple; it is the oldest crypt of the Marches built at the time of the spread of Christianity in the valley of Cesano.

Monastery of the Holy Cross in Fonte Avellana (X century) religious complex of great importance saw the passage of S. Pierdamiani and St. Romuald who were also Priori, stayed there also Dante Alighieri who devoted a few lines to the monastery and “Gibbo named Catria2. In the guesthouse you can find some products of the ancient pharmacy of the Camaldolese Fathers and near the monastery, advancing to a small path, you can admire a centuries-old rate.

Early Christian crypt of San Biagio (IV / V century): the oldest of the Marche, located not far from the center. It ‘was built with Roman remains, from a pagan temple, at the beginning of the spread of Christianity in the valley of Cesano.