Abbazia delle Tre Fontane

Placed on the spot where, in the Fifth Century, according to tradition, the Apostle Paul was beheaded. Three fountains sprang out of the spot where his head fell. Upon a christian cemetery of the Third Century, a place or worship was built in the centuries that followed. Gregorio Magno entrusted the area to the Basilica of San Paolo. In 1140 it was taken over by the Cistercians, who founded the second abbey in Italy based on the dictates of Saint Bernard, after that of  Chiaravalle in Milan. For the Jubilee of 1600, the churches of Santa Maria and San Paolo were built. During the Napolean era the complex was disbanded. It's rebirth came thanks to Pius IX who gave it to trappist monks that reclaimed the area and have been there ever since.