As you go up the road to Monteluco, on the left, 4,2 Km from Spoleto, beside an old wooden gate is the beginning of a little road that leads into a wood. After a few hundred metres following the road straight ahead without deviating either up or down you arrive at the entrance of the ancient Hermitage of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Eremo di S.M. delle Grazie).
At the end of the 5th Century AD, Saint Isaac of Antiochia chose Monteluco as the place where to re-establish, with his followers, the hermit lifestyle that he had had to abandon in Syria due to persecution.
Immersed in the sacred wood of Monteluco, the Hermitage through the centuries became a centre of spiritual and ascetic life.
When Cardinal Cybo ordered the construction of the actual church " Santa Maria delle Grazie" he also restored the appartaments, which included his rooms, an anterooms and a library. In the anteroom the walls are covered by paintings. Those masterpieces were executed by Ginesio del Barba di Massa. In the cardinal's library the walls are decorated in painted wood pannelings.
The door to the cells open on a gallery. These cells were once inhabited by monks and are now transformed into elegant and confortable suites for
our guests to enjoy.
Directions
