Eremo di Sant’Onofrio al Morrone o di Celestino V, Sulmona

The hermitage of Sant’Onofrio was expanded by the will of Pietro da Morrone in the last decade of the 13th century; here the monk led an eremitic life from 1293 until the early months of 1294, when he was elected to the papal throne with the name of Celestine V.

The hermitage develops on three levels: on the ground floor a loggia with a wooden ceiling and 15th-century frescoes, on the first floor the oratory and the cells of Pietro da Morrone and Roberto di Salle, on the second floor a panoramic terrace overlooking the Peligna valley.

The place of worship is the destination of pilgrimages and propitiatory rites, such as rubbing the painful parts of the body on the walls of the cave, ablution in the well that collects dripping water, collection of dust, rubble and twigs of plants growing around the sanctuary to which apotropaic value is attributed, and throwing stones from the terrace, symbolizing negative influences and pains.