THREE FOUNTAINS ABBEY

ABBAZIA DELLE TRE FONTANE

Three Fountains Abbey

Via Acque Salvie 1

Monastery founded about 625 by order of Honorius I (625/638) and held by Greek monks. It reached maximum wealth in the eighth and ninth century

In the second half of the eleventh century it was given to the Benedictines

From 1140 it was rebuilt, given to the Cistercians and completed in 1221

In the seventeenth century the churches S. Maria Scala Coeli and S. Paolo were built but later the monastery was abandoned

From the 1867 there was a revival with the Trappist fathers

ARCH OF CHARLEMAGNE

Eighth or ninth century, gateway to the monastery with frescoes from the twelfth or thirteenth century now almost completely disappeared: there are just traces of evangelists and saints

Painted to commemorate the donation of a property in the Tuscan Maremma, made by Pope Leo III (795/816) and Charlemagne to the Abbey in the year 805, for the miraculous intercession of the relics of St. Anastasio: they were believed to have contributed to the conquest of Ansedonia

Ss. Vincenzo e Anastasio

Sts. Vincent & Anastasius

625 for Honorius I to preserve the relics of St. Anastasio and, from the eighth century, also of St. Vincent. They were later transferred to the church dedicated to them in Piazza di Trevi

Reconstructed and completed in 1221 for Honorius III Savelli (1216/27)

Restoration 1868

To the left of the church MONASTIC BUILDINGS that cannot be visited belonging to the Trappist monks. Cloister of the twelfth century, chapter house and refectory

Frescoes including a “Calendar of months”

S. Maria Scala Coeli

Our Lady Stairway to Heaven             

1581/84 Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602) for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and, after his death in 1584, for the Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini

According to tradition it was here that St. Zeno and his 10,203 companions were martyred in 298 after having built the Baths of Diocletian

The name derives from the vision that St. Bernard of Clairvaux had in 1138 while celebrating mass: a long stairway to heaven climbed by a sinner for whose soul the saint had prayed to Our Lady, who awaited him at the top of the steps, indicating that the request was granted

THREE ALTARS

Dedicated to St. Zeno, the Virgin and St. Bernardo

APSE

Mosaic “Saints and Doctors of the Church with Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592/1605) and his nephew Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini” by Francesco Zucchi (about 1562/1622) 1591 from a design by Giovanni De Vecchi (about 1537/1615)

CRYPT

Altar dedicated to St. Paul and St. Zeno

At the sides of the altar little windows from which two rooms can be seen: to the left “Altar of the goddess Dia”, to the right room where, according to tradition, St. Paul was imprisoned

S. Paolo

St. Paul

Maybe fifth century. According to tradition on the site of the martyrdom of St. Paul on 68 AD. Rebuilt 1599/1601 by Giacomo Della Porta for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini

Statues on the pediment “St. Peter” and “St. Paul” by Nicolas Cordier (1567/1612)

On the floor mosaic with “Personification of the four seasons” from the mithraeum of the so-called Imperial Palace in Ostia donated by Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78)

APSE

Three niches with columns of black marble of Chios and fountains by Giacomo Della Porta where the springs of Acque Salvie (one hot, one warm and one cold) gushed. They have been closed in 1950 due to pollution

Between the first and second kiosk “Column of the beheading” to which St. Paul would have been bound for his martyrdom

RIGHT CHAPEL

“Decapitation of St. Paul” by Bartolomeo Passerotti (1529/92)

LEFT CHAPEL

Copy of the “Crucifixion of St. Peter” of the years 1604/05 by Guido Reni. The original, now in the Vatican Paintings Gallery, was painted for this church