Abbazia di San Firmano, Byzantine-Romanesque abbey in Montelupone, Italy

Abbazia di San Firmano is a Benedictine abbey in Montelupone with a church featuring three naves ending in circular apses and a Byzantine lunette above the entrance displaying five relief figures. The underground crypt beneath the building holds a terracotta statue of Saint Firmano and can be accessed through two side doors where medieval Gothic arches frame the space.

The abbey began as a refuge for Eastern monks fleeing iconoclast persecution between 726 and 843. In 986 Abbot Firmano moved to the church then dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist; the monastery was built at the wish of the "Pia Signora" of the Counts of Lornano at the end of the 10th century. Damaged in the 1028 Guelph-Ghibelline battle, the church was rebuilt in 1256, when Firmano's body was found. Monks stayed until 1468, draining the marshy Potenza valley.

The church interior displays a 16th-century fresco by Giacomo di Nicola da Recanati showing the Virgin and Child with Saint Firmano. This artwork remains visible on the walls today and shapes how the space feels inside.

Access to the underground crypt is straightforward through two side doors on the main church level. It helps to allow your eyes a moment to adjust to the dimmer light below ground, where there is less brightness than above.

The abbey's facade is modeled on the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna. Above the empty lunette sits an eagle, symbol of the evangelist John, gripping a feline in its talons, a motif read as dominion over sin and death. The two small columns flanking the portal differ: one is round, the other seven-sided.