Abbazia del Goleto

Goleto is a rural area at an altitude of about 600 metres, near the source of the River Ofanto, on the boundary between the municipalities of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, Nusco and Lioni.

In the early 12th century the young hermit William, bound for the Holy Land after pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela and Rome, followed the Via Appia and stopped in Irpinia. Here he founded first the Abbey of Montevergine and then, from 1133, the monastic citadel of the Santissimo Salvatore here at Goleto. To build it, William had been given a large plot of land by Roger, the Norman lord of nearby Monticchio. The complex was built largely from material salvaged from an earlier Roman settlement that had belonged to Marcus Paccius Marcellus. On either side of the original church rose an innovative 'double monastery', with two wings and two cloisters, the larger of them for the nuns. In the community thus founded, supreme authority lay with the abbess, while the monks were responsible for the liturgy and manual work. William never reached the Holy Land: he died in Irpinia, here at Goleto, on 24 June 1142. In 1942, 800 years after his death, Pius XII proclaimed him principal patron saint of Irpinia.