Chiesa di San Clemente al Vomano

About

San Clemente al Volmano, also known as the Abbey of San Clemente, is a Romanesque-style, former-Benedictine church and monastery found in a rural site, on a hill above the Volmano River, in the frazione of Guardia Vomano of the town of Notaresco, in provincia di Teramo, Abruzzo, Italy.

History: The abbey was founded by the Benedictines, putatively in 874. According to the Chronicon Casauriense (1182) is that while emperor Ludovico II himself commissioned the Casauria abbey after his release from the imprisonment by Adelchis of Benevento. Louis endowed that abbey with relics of the former Pope Clement I. Louis' mother Ermengarde of Tours, who was taking shelter at the nearby castle of Guardia, also provided for the founding of this abbey. Other sources claim it was founded instead by Louis II's daughter, Ermengard of Italy. In 911, a Saracen incursion destroyed both the Abbey of Casauria and San Clemente. Rebuilt, the monastery was again razed by the Normans in 1077. As usual after the arson of church in this age, the relics of St Clement were discovered under the pavement of the church at the time of Abbot Grimoaldo (1096), and this encouraged again rebuilding of the monastery...