Built in strict Romanesque-Cistercian style, Abbey of Valvisciolo is one of the greatest masterpieces of its kind in the province after Fossanova Abbey. Tradition has it that this abbey was founded in the 12th century by Greek monks and was occupied and restored by the Templars in the 13th c. When this order was dissolved in the 14th century, the Cistercians took over.

A medieval legend is linked to this abbey, where it is said that in 1314, when the last Templar Grand Master, Jacques de Molay was burned at the stake, the lintels of the churches broke. Even today, if you look closely at the lintel of the abbey’s main portal, you can still glimpse a crack. The interior of the church, with three naves divided by pillars and columns, has walls bare of frescoes in accordance with the “memento mori” canons of the Cistercians who avoided architectural splendor because materiality did not matter to them but, instead, spirituality.

At the back of the left aisle is the Chapel of St. Lawrence. Frescoed in 1586-89 by the painter Niccolò Circignani known as il Pomarancio on commission from Cardinal Enrico Caetani and Onorato IV. This cycle of frescoes was created on the occasion of Pope Sixtus V’s visit to the Caetani duchy. Inside the chapel there are many self-celebratory nods referring to the ducal title that was granted precisely to Onorato IV in 1586. In fact there are many ducal crowns supported by cherubs. Most interesting is the self-portrait by Pomarancio that scholar Sonia Testa discovered among the grotesque decoration of the vault, near the two sails with the episode in which St. Lawrence performs the conversion of Lucilius and the one with the episode in which St. Lawrence baptizes St. Roman in prison. A rose window can be seen above the entrance door. The cloister site to the right of the abbey looking at the facade has a brightly colored garden.

The abbey is located 116 m above sea level on a buttress overlooking a small valley, by medieval tradition known as “of the nightingale.” The name of the monastic complex would seem to derive from the said valley.