Montevergine Sanctuary

the official source of Montevergine sanctuary dates back to the consecration of the first church in the distant 1126. Beyond some popular beliefs that have wished to link the origin of the sanctuary to an apparition of Our Lady, we can say that it was precisely the spirit ascetic Mariano di San Guglielmo and his disciples to do so that the peaks of the Monte Partenio there extends a beacon of devotion to the Holy Virgin Mother of God. Since then the main purpose of the new monastic family was to serve God through the devotion to Our Lady, that the disciples of Guglielmo took soon spread throughout Campania and in neighboring regions, by organising several pilgrimages toward their mother house. Marian devotion was conceived by the whites sons of William as the most effective way to engage in the mystery of the Trinity of God and of the Redemption accomplished by Jesus. The fundamental reason of the tiring journey and rugged ascent to the church of Santa Maria di Montevergine, of prolonged prayers and offerings of believers, became the invocation of the powerful intercession of Our Lady to obtain the mercy of God. It was thus that Montevergine became soon in the Marian shrine most famous and visited in Southern Italy, and pilgrimages took their specific characteristic.

Abbatial Museum of Montevergine
The need to allocate an appropriate local, to contain works of art and artifacts of historical interest-local, was perceived to Montevergine after the fire of the Foresteria in 1611 and after the fall of the nave of the church in 1629. In the two painful circumstances, monks received pieces of architecture and sculpture, votive tablets and scenes of the crib that, in the reconstruction phase, found no more place in the premises of origin. The abbot Iacuzio, in 1764, he thought well to catalog and expose those finds in the corridor adjacent to the courtyard of the crows. Unfortunately this first museum accommodation during the century of suppressions, was defeat and prices of archaeological interest were dispersed and scattered here and there in the basements of the monastery. In the second post-war period, with the reborn sensitivity to the memories of the past and with the contribution of scientific and economic of the competent ministry was resumed the discourse on the Museum of Montevergine, opened to the public in September 1968. But it is only from 2000, on the occasion of the Great Jubilee, which leads to the definitive layout of the salt museum.

The exhibition is divided into four thematic areas, is articulated through a series of rooms arranged on two floors for a surface of ca. 1000 sqm open to the public; the museum structure is also equipped with a book-shop and a lift for disabled. The access door is located inside of the cloister of the crows and the route, as well as for the exhibited works, is made even more charming by the presence of three large windows in the hall of the former monastic refectory, which enjoys a charming panorama of the city of Avellino and over the entire valley on Saturday.

Opening times:
15 Jul/15 Set: Mon-Fri: 9.30-12.30 / 15-18. Sat - Sun: 09.30-13 / 15-18.
16 Sep/14 Jul: Sat - Sun: 09.30-13 / 15-17.