The Abbey of S.Niccolò Al Monte Orvietano

The ancient Camaldolese Abbey of San Niccolò al Monte Orvietano rises in the countryside north of the village of Ficulle, a few hundred meters from the river Chiani.

San Pier Damiani, cardinal and doctor of the Church, traces the refoundation of the church back to the year 1007 by St. Romualdo, founder of the Camaldolese order. According to this source, the building was built in this area at the behest of the very wealthy Count Farulfo di Montemarte, owner of the land, who bore all the expenses, and sent "holy and reverend people from the surroundings".

THE HISTORY

The origin of the church is testified by the Annales Camaldolenses (tome III, pages 222,225 and in book XXIX ": " Abbatiae S. Nicolai fundator, vel restaurator easy fuerit Romualdus ") and by discovery in this place of a capital in white marble with the coat of arms of the congregation of the Camaldolese.

In 1118 the monastery came into the possession of the Bulgarian family, counts of Marsciano and owners of the Castle of Parrano. It is mentioned in the land registry of 1292 as Villa Abbatie Montis Orvietani , within the parish of Ficulle, with reference to the abbey which subsequently gave its name to a villa. At that date, according to what was reported in the land registry of 1292, it was inhabited by an industrious and self-sufficient secular-religious community, which in the Orvieto territory had no equal in quantity of possessions. Even in this document there is talk of immeasurable possessions.

THE GRACEIAN MONK

In the Abbey of S. Niccolò, in the early 12th century the Magister Gratiano , the Camaldolese monk, illustrious jurist and founder of canon law, wore the monk's habit. In Giovanni Colonna's "De viris illustribus" of 1335 we read: "Gratianus monachus Abbatiae Montis Orbetani dioecesis Urbevetanae ex oppido Carraia prope Ficulas homo studiosissimus fuit" . An imposing work is owed to the Monk Graziano, the first attempt to reconcile the various contradictions that now abundant from the sacred texts, thanks to various works such as the "Sic et non" by the philosopher Abelard. Drawing largely from the "Panormia" of Ivo de Chartres and from other collections that were born copiously in the Gregorian period, he wrote the famous "Concordia discordantium canonum", which then went down in history as "Decretum Graziani" or "Corpus iuris canonici".

Pope Saint John Paul II, on the occasion of the official presentation of the "New Code of Canon Law, recalled:" In this regard I may be permitted, among the many deservedly famous canonists and jurists, to name at least the monk Gratian, the author of the "Decretum " (Concordia discordantium canonum), which Dante places in his fourth heaven, among the wise spirits, in the company of Saint Albert the Great, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Peter Lombardo, exalting it because:

«that other flame comes out of rice
by Grazïan, which both bore
helped yes who like it in heaven. »”
(Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy - Paradiso, canto X, vv.103-105)

THE VISIT OF SAINT FRANCIS

A very ancient local tradition states that in this monastery Saint Francis of Assisi was hosted on one of his travels, most likely that of 1212 towards Sarteano where he also stopped at the Convent of Scarzuola in the Municipality of Montegabbione. It was precisely on that occasion that the Saint would have chosen a solitary place, not far away, to have a convent built there for his friars. That convent was actually built, although very soon it appears to have been abandoned (we have news of the church up to 1576). Of the entire structure only a few ruins remain today called "Walls of San Francesco". The material was used to build the convent of the Capuchin friars near Ficulle (1580-1587).

A TRAGIC EPILOGUE AND A NEW LIFE

It was perhaps due to the enormous wealth of the community that resided at the Abbey that in the fourteenth century it became the site of bitter disputes between the two factions that disputed the supremacy in the Orvieto territory, the Monaldeschi della Vipera, lords of Orvieto and Ficulle, and the Bulgarian Counts, lords of Marsciano and Parrano. These disputes disturbed the peace of that place, which was located in the border area and subject to continuous oppression. The monks were therefore forced to abandon the Abbey of San Niccolò al Monte. The building was transformed into a fortress by changing owners several times and underwent several ordeals, fires, and structural changes. The Bulgarian Counts dominated the Abbey of San Niccolò al Monte Orvietano until 1471, the year in which it, by order of the Holy See, was reunited at the chapter table of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. According to historical sources, however, the Abbey was definitively abandoned in 1351, after the last violent fire destroyed a large part of the fort and caused the fall of the great twelve-sided tower.

Probably after this date the local population began to appropriate what was left of the Abbey and rebuilt a part of the church, giving it its current shape. In 1642 a bull of Pope Urban VIII imposed on the Canons of Santa Maria Maggiore to grant "the Community and the men of Ficulle" in perpetual emphyteusis all the assets of the Abbey of San NIccolò al Monte Orvietano for an annual fee of 300 scudi. Memory of this important event still remains in one of the marble tombstones placed in the main square of the town. Following the emphyteusis, the entire complex was transformed over the centuries into rural homes for the local farmers, leaving the abbey its current shape. The phenomenon of the depopulation of the countryside in 1900 did not leave the buildings of the place unscathed, which were gradually abandoned.

At the end of the 1980s, after a long period of neglect, the restoration work of the church began, which over the years involved the reconstruction of the roof, the consolidation of the walls, the restoration of the fresco depicting "The crucifixion "Present inside the church depicting the dying Christ on the cross dated 1568 and recently the reconstruction of the internal flooring.

During 2014, preliminary to the reconstruction of the internal flooring of the church financed by the Umbria Region, an archaeological excavation campaign was carried out during which the stratigraphy that in various eras had covered the most ancient. In the eastern portion of the church, 3 apses belonging to an earlier church have been found. The result of these excavations is currently visible thanks to the special flooring, made of glass and metal.

THE PATH OF THE CROSSES

Outside the church there is the "Path of the Crosses", an ancient way of the cross built in the woods of the surrounding valley, practiced by pilgrims who walk from Ficulle to the Abbey of San Niccolò and vice versa , recently restored and fixed thanks to regional funding. The path, which can be covered entirely on foot, starting from the mountain locality leads directly to the Abbey and vice versa and still has some of the ancient crosses that formed a suggestive Via Crucis in the woods. In ancient times this historic path was probably the main access road to the Abbey.

MANDATORY STAGE ALONG THE VIA ROMEA GERMANICA

The village of Ficulle is crossed by the Via Romea Germanica, which goes from Stade in Germany to Rome, passing through the Abbey of San Niccolò al Monte Orvietano.

Some recent studies have shown that the Abbey is located in the center of an impluvium in the shape of a shell (scallop). This has certainly favored its water supply over the centuries. However, the curious coincidence with the shell of San Giacomo, the undisputed symbol of all pilgrimages, will not escape.