Abbazia di Sant'Agata Martire

Splendid, semi-unknown ruins of a large abbey in the heart of the Tavoliere area of ​​Foggia. A time flourishing for the agriculture of the places and as a stop for wayfarers and pilgrims, now silent and quiet guardian of an immense plain that turns to the sea and to the Tremiti Islands.

A terrific tour !! A magical location ... fantastic evening???

In some places in southern Italy, history passes, leaves its mark, and then everything is forgotten. A beautiful place. On state road 16 there is not even a small sign that indicates its presence, unfortunately.

A strip of the Middle Ages pulsates in the heart of the Serrana countryside, the fortified abbey of Sant'Agata, for centuries a place of intense sacredness. Its mighty structure, surrounded by "very strong walls and towers", today languishes humiliated by time and neglect, stripped of art, people, geometry, religiosity with the walls open to the winds, in a rigorous silence. Dedicated to Sant'Agata martyr, the abbey is located on the north-eastern edge of the Serrano territory, built in 1040 as an abbey, over time it grew into a fortified farm, becoming a crossroads for knights and pilgrims, where they found a hot meal and they could refuel for the trip. In 1600, it was governed by the regular canons of Sant'Agostino in the name of the abbey of Tremiti, for which it supplied the supplies. The building, equipped with mighty surrounding walls, included two sections: the abbey part with the church, theories of cells and the colonnaded portico that developed along the cloister; and the part indicated as "farmhouse", intended for the settlers' lodgings and warehouses for goods that opened onto a large courtyard. The abbey was managed according to the type of the landowning company, with a manager, a management group, various categories of workers, a mass of laborers for the daily work. To these were added bakers, blacksmiths, leather workers and shoemakers, who lived inside the central building. The assembly made the whole complex autonomous, making it not very vulnerable to famines, raids by the Saracens and knights of fortune. After the laws on the subversion of feudalism, Sant'Agata was bought by some Neapolitan merchants who gave it, in 1811, together with the large estates of relevance, to the marquis de Luca of Foggia, it was inhabited until the fifties by Camillo de Luca and family , factor of the estates and trusted person of Prince Saluzzi of Naples, cousin of the King of the House of Savoy, by an elementary school teacher, by two guardians and by shepherds.

Very beautiful place, evocative that so needs to be recovered.ato

A magical place that should be recovered today, with the infinity of available, published and above all private funds.

A beautiful experience, in a context that is nevertheless degraded. It leaves the state of abandonment in which a monument so large and interesting without words. In the South there is so much to work, in recovery, and more.

A place as beautiful as it is abandoned. In any place in the world, a conservation intervention would have been carried out on the structures respecting the places, the history and the very important fauna that nests and takes refuge there. Let's hope we don't have to mourn its slow destruction ...