The Abbey of San Salvatore

Abbadia S. Salvatore is a small village located on the Sienese side of Monte Amiata. It owes its name to the abbey of the same name built at the behest of the Lombard king Rachis in 743, on the place where, according to tradition, he had an apparition of the Savior. Today only the crypt remains of the original church: the building and its Benedictine cloister, in fact, have undergone alterations over the centuries which have given it its current form. The crypt features a 12th century wooden crucifix, two cycles of frescoes and 24 columns each different from the other. It is not yet certain whether it really corresponds to the original Lombard church or whether it was built at the same time as the upper church, whose plan is perfectly symmetrical. The abbey was important for King Rachis also for its strategic position: it dominated, in fact, the valley of the via Francigena, the road that connected the possessions of the north with those of the south. The church has been known over the centuries because up to 1700 it kept the Amiatina Bible, the oldest complete copy of the Bible written in Latin by San Girolamo: today the original is found in the Laureziana Library in Florence, while here it remains only a similar fax.