The Abbey of Montecassino is a symbol of spirituality, history, and resilience. The patron Saint of Europe and father of Western Monasticism Benedict of Norcia founded the abbey in 529 AD. He had reached the hills of Montecassino from Subiaco, on foot, with other monks: they planned to find the perfect spot to build a monastery and give their community a home.

And that hill, the same hill where, today, Benedetto’s majestic abbey still stands, couldn’t go unnoticed: the Romans, not many centuries before, had built their temples to Apollo and Jupiter there, and it was their vestiges that welcomed Benedict and his brethren. There, on the highest spot of the hill, where trees and nature had conquered back their space around the temples, Benedict set the founding stone of his religious community.