Abbazia di Santa Maria della Sambucina

Santa Maria di Sambucina is a former Cistercian abbey in the Sila Mountains of Calabria. It stands seven kilometres east of Luzzi at 780 metres above sea level. The site overlooks the western bank of the Crati river where King William II granted land to the monks in 1166. The monastery quickly grew into a centre of learning known as the ‘studium artium’. Six daughter houses were founded across Sicily and southern Italy during the 12th century. A series of earthquakes damaged the buildings in 1184 and again in 1569, prompting repairs and later shortening of the church by four bays. The abbey joined the Calabro-Lucanian Cistercian congregation in 1633 before its final suppression in 1780. Visitors today see parts of the original 12th-century apse and a pair of nave piers. The west façade, set back from the nave, carries a portal built in the 13th or 14th century. The three-aisled church still shows the rectangular choir and projecting transept typical of the Bernardine plan. The quiet mountain setting offers long views across the valley towards Luzzi.