Overview
It was 529 AD. C. when St Benedict left Subiaco with some monks, came to this mountain and decided to establish his community here.
The area was still predominantly pagan and he wanted to build a place of prayer, peace and culture where his monks could live their lives to the full. His motion, “ora et labora et lege”, is the essence of his thought: the right balance of prayer, work, study, solitude and communion that gives man completeness.
Although it was bombed during World War II and rebuilt after the war, entering the Abbey is like stepping back in time and retracing its thousand-year history. The structures, the splendid mosaics, the ancient books and illuminated manuscripts, the works of art... everything testifies to how Montecassino was and is a true “Lighthouse of Western Civilisation”.
In its almost 1,500 years of history, many vicissitudes and events have affected the monastic complex: invaded by the Lombards around 570, it was rebuilt in 718 and again sacked by the Saracens in 883. The monks were forced to leave the site and only returned in 949.
The oldest document written in an Italian vernacular, the well-known “Placito capuano”, dates back to March 960, in which a dispute between a lay landowner and the abbot of Montecassino over the ownership of some land was settled.
Between the 11th and 12th centuries, the abbey experienced a golden age: it increased its territory and fortified it with numerous castles; it maintained good relations with the Eastern Church and the abbey became a forge of the arts where Christians, Orientals and even Saracens worked together.
Severely damaged by the terrible earthquake of 1349, it was rebuilt with contributions from all the monasteries. Sacked again by French troops in 1799 and stripped of its possessions by the nascent Regno d'Italia in 1866, the building became a national monument with the monks as custodians of its treasures. The terrible events of the Second World War and the subsequent reconstruction were the last events to affect this place, this mountain that still shines like a lighthouse, illuminating Italy, Europe and the world with its tranquillity and culture after almost 1,500 years.
