Santa Maria Maddelena in Armillis

The monumental Abbey of Santa Maria Maddalena in Armillis stands near the Amalfi Coast in the village of Sant’Egidio del Monte Albino. It serves as the mother church of the parish and belongs to the Diocese of Nocera Inferiore-Sarno. The abbey is led by Father Massimo Staiano and serves about 2,800 faithful. Beneath the church lies a small 8th-century or 11th-century crypt once part of a Roman villa from the Augustan age.

The abbey’s history begins with a tiny Benedictine monastery built between the 8th and 11th centuries. A donation in 1113 by Prince Giordano II of Capua first mentions the monastery dedicated to Saint Egidius. In 1231 Emperor Frederick II confirmed this foundation in a diploma that also named the church of Saint Egidius and Saint Mary Magdalene. The current church, built between 1506 and 1542, replaced an earlier structure and kept parts of its remains. Its Latin-basilica plan measures 38.55 metres long and 23 metres wide, with a central nave and two side aisles topped by small domes.

Inside, eleven altars line the side aisles, each adorned with painted panels. The apse holds a nine-panel polyptych by Giovan Lorenzo Firello completed between 1540 and 1543. Below, the crypt preserves faded 13th-century frescoes, including a scene of Saint Egidius and the doe. The abbey’s palace, once home to abbots and cardinals, still shows traces of its medieval origins. A small garden behind the church contains the ancient cellarium.