This was built by monks in the 12th Century, partly out of the surrounding rock. It is still a place of pilgrimage today and ancient rituals are performed here. Those who come to cure a stomach ache or a fever go to a hollow which is called the cradle of S. Onofrio as it has two hollows formed because of the pressure of people kneeling there. On the night of the day of Sant'Onofrio, June 12, pilgrims come here early in the morning and there is a procession that goes to the town with the statue of the saint. This place is near the Abbey of San Liberatore in Maiella, not far from the town of Serramonacesca.
Built between 1933 and 1938, this church was reconstructed after the bombings during World War II. That's why it's also called the Tempio Nazionale della Conciliazione (national temple of conciliation). The stone façade, with three portals and three rose windows, takes its inspiration from Abruzzo Romanesque. The façade is framed by the peaked tower on the left and the baptistery on the right. Inside there are three naves with a lacunar ceiling over the central one. In the chapel off the left nave there is a painting by Guercino donated by Gabriele D'Annunzio. His mother is actually buried here. The left nave features a bronze reproduction of the Crocifisso di Donatello.
The cathedral is found on a hill where pagan rites took place once upon a time. There are remains of cult settlements here and Roman remains have been found in the area which testify that it is an ancient, holy place. Before the cathedral was built, which is dedicated to Santa Maria degli Angeli and to San Massimo, there were at least two Christian churches here. Material was found during restorations that documents the story of the church throughout the centuries from before the year 1000. Before the 11th Century, it was Romanesque, and in the 14th Century it became Gothic. It was restored at the beginning of the last century, and was seriously damaged by the 1944 bombings, and rebuilt in 1955. The facade was rebuilt in brickwork, but the lateral door dates from 1574 and the bell tower from the 14th Century. The interior is a latin cross shape with three naves containing pointed arches. The main altar in the presbytery is from the 12th Century, and, although it was rebuilt after the bombings, it still has original parts. The oldest part of the church is the crypt, which dates from before the year 1000. It has oriental, marble and granite columns that date from the classical building period, and there are remains of frescoes from the 12th and 13th Centuries. There is a distinctive holy water font which has a mix of medieval and Renaissance elements.
On the upper part of the town, with a loggia and two, large Romanesque windows, this has an ancient, Christian sarcophagus in stone. The portico floor is made of perforated brick. On the Renaissance portal there is a Bourbon coat of arms, also called Matrice, which elevates the church to an abbey. There are three naves inside, with a 16th-century chapel that has a wooden statue of San Tommaso. There is another one of him as a young man, testimony to a miracle carried out by him in Loreto, when it was under the rule of the feudal Count Berardo II Bassavilla. Inside a silver urn from the Neapolitan school from the 19th Ccentury, are relics of San Zopito, patron saint of Loreto. This is near a silver bust of a saint, dating from the end of the 18th Century.
This was discovered by excavators examining a succession of strata at Roman, sub-Appennine and Neolithic levels. The value of this discovery is not only related to the fact that it is over 6500 years old. It is also that the cave was not a hunting shelter like so many other archaeological finds from the same period. This cave was a sanctuary. Studies have found remains of a child sacrificed in some rite, that was probably linked to the fertility of the land. It is near Bolognano, in a rocky landscape with waterfalls and green water from the Valley of Orta.