The Abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano

Built on the ruins of an ancient pagan building, the Abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano, not far from Monte Sant’Angelo, is a picturesque stone structure, enclosed by mighty curtain walls, wedged between gray rock cliffs and chasms up to 200m deep.

Erected in the Romanesque style in 591 AD, the church was built inside a natural cave, which serves as an apsis featuring a single aisle and a barrel vault, interspersed with large transverse arches.
Two sections situated on both sides of the cave accommodate the tomb of Jordan the Abbot, and an altar incorporated in a small brick structure with a pitched roof.

Outside the abbey you can see part of a fountain, considered a baptismal font or a small temple, built for the pilgrims to refresh, and numerous hermitages, often accessible only via stairs of ropes.

Newly opened to the public after restoration works, the abbey is the natural set stage for the feast of September 8th, when the procession of the faithful departing from Monte Sant’Angelo, arrive at the complex on muleback.