Hermitage of Madonna dell'Altare, Hermitage in Palena, Abruzzo, Italy

The Hermitage of Madonna dell'Altare stands on a rocky spur above the Aventino river, between the Forchetta pass and Mount Porrara. The complex comprises a church, a residential centre on three levels including a basement, and a hanging garden. The church has a rectangular plan, a gable roof to the south and an irregular roof to the north; its facade features a lintelled portal with jambs, a moulded cornice, a frieze with a central coat of arms, and two pilasters with six capitals decorated with volutes and floral motifs.

Pietro da Morrone, later Pope Celestine V, left the hermitage of Castel di Sangro in 1235-36 and stayed about four years in a cave near this rocky spur. In the 14th century the Celestine monks built the church and residential complex beside it. The order was abolished in 1807 and the complex passed to the Perticone family, which donated the religious buildings to the municipality of Palena in 1970.

Pilgrims reach the hermitage on 2 July for the feast of San Falco of Palena, and again on 12 September; many once spent the night there. A foundation legend tells of a sacred image appearing to a shepherd boy. The name "altare" comes from the rock's altar-like shape.

The hermitage closes on 21 November and reopens at Pentecost, so visits are only possible in the warmer months. It stands beside the SS 84 Frentana between the Forchetta pass and Monte Porrara, above the Aventino river, and is reached on foot from Palena. Pilgrims traditionally spend the night there before the 2 July feast of San Falco.

The name "Altare" comes from the shape of the rock, which some scholars compare to an altar. Inside, the church has a single barrel-vaulted nave and a scagliola tabernacle whose niche holds a 15th-century sculpture of the Madonna and Child, flanked by 18th-century paintings of Saint Peter Celestine and Roberto da Salle.