San Giovanni in Venere Abbey

It includes a basilica and the monastery proper, both built in the early 13th century on a pre-existing convent.

The reference to Venus derives from the traditional presence of a temple of the goddess in the site, which would have been built in 80 BC.

Around 1060, abbot Oderisius I, fearing an advance of the Normans towards Chieti, fortified the monastery and founded the castrum (castle) of Rocca San Giovanni.

While the former, apart sculptures and canvasses, is still the same, the latter is today only a small fraction of the edifice: in the year 1200 it housed 80-120 Benedictines monks, it has several studios, laboratories, a large library and a rich archive (whose texts are now in Rome), two cloisters, a bakery, an ambulatory, stables a recovery for pilgrims and much other features.

In that period the abbot was the most powerful feudatary of the Kingdom of Sicily, possessing much of today's provinces of Chieti and Pescara, and other lands from Ravenna to Benevento.

After another period of decay, and a series of damages during World War II, the abbey is now cared by a community of Passionists.

The church has the typical structure of the Cistercian basilicas, with a nave and two aisles separated by ogival arches and wooden ceiling.