Solitude, peace, communion, seek God, work and prayer are the stimuli that have led San Romualdo, in the early eleventh century, to found a hermitage. Today the Hermitage of Camaldoli is parent of the Benedictine community in a beautiful forested slope of the Casentino Forests National Park, about 1100 m above sea level.
The Hermitage, enclosed by a stone wall, opens onto the main street with a large wooden door.
Inside there are 20 cells, all built in the style of that of St. Romuald, preserved and open to the inside of the Library.
The cells have a very typical form "spiral", particularly functional to retain heat in the winter, but also evoke the ideal path that has to make the monaco to enter himself. The focus of these small cells is the room of monaco, with a small study adjoining. Around it there is a chapel, a woodshed, a corridor, a bathroom and a storeroom. On three sides of the perimeter of the cell there is a covered porch that allows you to walk to monaco meditating even in case of bad weather.
A characteristic feature of this monastic order is the welcome of the stranger: the great structure a bit 'more to the hermitage valley welcomes all those who want to make an experience of dialogue, of fraternal communion and prayer.
Next to the guesthouse there is the Old Pharmacy of monks, founded with the intent to provide care to patients with spices and natural medicines and the rebuilt in 1331 after a fire that devastated in 1276.
Si ringraziano per la cortese concessione delle loro fotografie:
Comune di Bagno di Romagna, Cooperativa Atlantide, Pier Luigi Ricci, Massimo Schiumarini, Caterina Rigoni, Federico Locatelli, Mattia Vesco, Miriam Narducci, Nevio Agostini