Florense Abbey
Place of worship
Abbazia Florense, San Giovanni in Fiore - Regione Calabria
The Florense Abbey of San Giovanni in Fiore is among the largest and most important religious buildings in Calabria.
Founded in San Giovanni in Fiore, a municipality in the Sila National Park in the province of Cosenza, by the monk Joachim da Fiore, one of the greatest exponents of western philosophical and theological thought, the Florense Abbey was built between 1189 and 1198 in the ancient locality of Iure Vetere.
The remains of the original Abbey of San Giovanni in Fiore, destroyed by fire and refounded in 1215 in the locality of Fiore Nuovo, emerged in the archaeological excavation of 2001.
The Florense Abbey of San Giovanni in Fiore is Romanesque in style, with a Latin-plan complex with a large cloister with ogival arches in the centre. Only the finely worked limestone portal remains of the original entrance. The façade is simple, ‘’gabled‘’ and devoid of decoration. The interior is also in Romanesque bare-stone style, devoid of any decoration. The wooden Baroque altar (1740) is the work of master Giovanbattista Altomare from Rogliano.
The side aisle houses the permanent exhibition of the Liber Figurarum plates, the original artistic works of Gioacchino da Fiore, which encapsulate the philosopher's thought and imagination.
The Abbey of San Giovanni in Fiore is the destination of the Gioachimita Path, a naturalistic-spiritual itinerary in the footsteps of Abbot Joachim, among the official Paths of the region.
