San Pietro in Valle

According to a legend, the Duke of Spoleto saw in a dream the same Saint Peter who invited him to build a Benedictine monastery in the place of the present abbey.

At the end of the ninth century the monastery suffered, as it happened shortly after in Farfa, the sacking of the Saracens and was resurrected only in 996 at the behest of Otto III.

Four sarcophagi preserved in the church date back to the 2nd century, which for the style and the representations suggest oriental artists: The two slabs of the main altar, carved in bas-relief, are from the Lombard period.

On the front of the altar runs an inscription in Latin, with curious mixed capital and lowercase characters: "Ilderico Dagileopa, in honor of St. Peter and for the love of St. Leo and St. Gregory, for the salvation of the soul (pro remedio animae) ".

The raised arms have been interpreted as a ritual attitude and, in this case, the kilt would correspond to the cloth that is worn after baptism (which, in ancient times, was carried out by complete immersion).

This one of San Pietro in Valle is one of the very rare cases, in medieval art, in which the client can easily be distinguished from the artist, thanks to the fact that they are both mentioned.