Description of the attraction
Trinita della Cava, better known as Baia di Cava, is a Benedictine abbey located near the town of Cava de Tirreni in the Salerno province of the Campania region of Italy. It stands in a gorge near the Finestrian Hills.
The abbey was founded in 1011 by an aristocrat from Salerno, Alferio Pappacarbone, who became a Clunian monk and from the same year lived as a hermit. Pope Urban II granted the abbey many privileges, including jurisdiction over the surrounding territories. The first four abbots of Trinita della Cava were even canonized as saints in 1893 by Pope Leo XIII.
In 1394, Pope Boniface IX granted the abbey the status of a diocese, and its abbots began to perform the functions of bishops. However, already in 1513, the city of Cava was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of Trinita della Cava, and around the same time the place of the Clunian monks was taken by the monks of the Benedictine order.
During the reign of Napoleon in Italy, the abbey, like many other religious institutions, was closed, however, thanks to the abbot Carlo Mazzacana, the monastic commune remained intact, and the abbey itself was restored after the fall of the French emperor. And today, the novices of Trinita della Cava become parish priests of the surrounding towns and villages.
The abbey church and most of the other buildings were completely modernized in 1796, but the old Gothic cloister has been preserved in its original form. Of the sights of the religious complex, it is worth mentioning the organ, several ancient sarcophagi, the tombs of Queen Sibylla of Burgundy, who died in 1150, and a number of burials of prominent clergy. In addition, the abbey contains an extensive collection of public and private documents, the oldest of which date back to the 8th century, including the oldest Lombard code of laws from the 11th century or the so-called La Cava Bible from the 9th century.
