Abbey of San Felice and Mauro
The Abbey of San Felice e Mauro is a Catholic complex in Umbria, Italy. It includes the rural parish church of San Felice, a former monastery church built in Romanesque and Gothic styles, and the attached abbey, a former Benedictine monastery now a rural inn and restaurant. It lies just outside the hillside hamlet of Castel San Felice, less than a kilometer north of Sant’Anatolia di Narco, in the Valenerina valley east of Spoleto, in the Province of Perugia.
A Benedictine monastery is believed to have been established here by the 12th century. Local tradition connects Saint Maurus, a 4th-century Roman soldier from Syria, and his son Felix to the area, with legends of eremitic life in nearby caves. Legend says Maurus slew a dragon that terrorized the community, and that Felix, aided by angels, resurrected a dead child. After Felix’s death, Maurus is said to have built a small chapel for his son’s tomb. The buildings were rebuilt over the centuries. The church was in ruins by 1530 and was restored by a wealthy noble from Spoleto. In 1922, Baroque additions were removed and the church was restored to reveal its original construction.
Architecturally, the façade features Gothic elements, including a rose window with two flanking mullioned windows. The area around the rose window displays the symbols of the four evangelists, and a decorative frieze—likely made from earlier church fragments—shows scenes of Maurus killing a dragon and Felix healing a child. The portal has rounded arches. Inside, a strong colonnade forms three naves, which contain some 15th-century frescoes. Outside, the semicircular Romanesque apse is evident. In the presbytery, steps descend to a vaulted crypt with a small ancient sarcophagus believed to hold Felix’s relics.
The stone former abbey has a small courtyard and sits near an old bridge over the Nera River. Up the hill is Castel San Felice, a once-fortified hamlet.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 01:14 (CET).