Valvisciolo Abbey

[2] Likely damaged during the 12th-century invasion of Barbarossa,[3] it was occupied and restored by the Knights Templar in the 13th century, who after the dissolution of their order were replaced first briefly by Augustinians, then again by the Cistercians in 1312-15.

According to a medieval legend, when the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay was burnt at the stake in 1314, the church's architraves broke.

During a restoration, a Templar palindromic Sator Square was discovered on a wall: it is the only known variant in which the letters form five concentric rings, each one divided into five sectors.

Pope Pius IX made two important visits to the abbey in 1863 and 1865, and by his order the community here was re-established, as a priory dependent upon the congregation of Casamari.

At the end of the north nave is the Chapel of Saint Laurence, painted with frescoes in the years 1586-89 by Niccolò Circignani, known as "il Pomarancio" on commission from Cardinal Enrico Caetani.