Abbey Madonna della Scala

The Monastery
The Madonna della Scala abbey is located in the territory of Noci (Bari) and the diocese of Conversano - Monopoli. It is located in the Murge area at 400 meters above sea level, about the same distance from Bari, Taranto and Matera. The monastery was begun on 8 August 1930 on a project by the architect Ugo Zanchetta and then continued by the engineer Fr Agostino Lanzani, Benedictine monk. The building looks like a massive stone construction located on the top of the hill of the same name, isolated in the middle of the surrounding countryside. Inside, a large cloister leads to the refectory, the church, the corridor (South East sides) of the cells, to the guesthouse on the north side of the cloister. The church, built in the Apulian Romanesque style, was blessed by the abb. Emmanuele Caronti (1954), later consecrated by Archbishop M. Magrassi in the 15th centenary of St. Benedict (1980). The building is grafted onto a pre-existing 13th century Romanesque church residue of a Cassinese grange.