The abbey of Grottaferrata: the Greek monks at Rome's door

A few kilometres from Rome, at Grottaferrata, there is a monastery where people have prayed in Greek for a thousand years. It is the abbey of Santa Maria, which everyone calls the abbey of San Nilo: behind its fortress walls live monks of the Byzantine rite, united with the Church of Rome.

Who was Saint Nilus?

Nilus of Rossano was a Calabrian monk, from the Greek tradition that was still alive in southern Italy. He arrived on the hills of Tusculum, and in 1004 Count Gregory of Tusculum gave him land at the foot of the hill, on the ruins of a Roman villa. Nilus died that same year, on 26 September. His disciple Bartholomew the Younger finished the work, and on 17 December 1024 Pope John XIX consecrated the church.

A Greek abbey, and a Catholic one

This is what makes the place unique. The monastery was founded about fifty years before the split between the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054, and it has never broken with Rome. The monks celebrate in the Byzantine rite, that of the Eastern Churches, in full communion with the pope.

Over the centuries the community was renewed mostly by Italo-Albanian monks, who kept the rite alive. Since 1937 it has been a territorial abbey, answering directly to the Holy See.

The fortress

The abbey looks like a castle, and it was built to be one. Between 1482 and 1503 Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who would become Pope Julius II, had it ringed with walls and towers and built the abbot’s palace. In those years the Roman countryside was a battleground between the great families: in June 1484 the Colonna sacked the abbey while the pope’s army was camped there.

What to see inside

• The church of Santa Maria, with its twelfth century bell tower and, on the triumphal arch, a Pentecost mosaic from the late twelfth or thirteenth century.
• The Chapel of the Founders, dedicated to Nilus and Bartholomew, frescoed by Domenichino between 1608 and 1610 for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese.
• The archaeological museum, reorganised in 2017, with finds from the area.

The book laboratory

In 1931 Father Nilo Borgia founded a book restoration laboratory here. The best known work to come out of these rooms is the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus. The abbey’s library, together with the complex, has been state property since 1873.

The link with Tusculum

The abbey was born inside the history of Tusculum. It was the Counts of Tusculum who gave the land, the same family that gave the Church the Tusculan popes and won the battle of Monte Porzio of 1167. Grottaferrata, Frascati and Monte Porzio are the three towns around the hill today: to climb to the ruins, see walking up to Tusculum.

Before you go, check visiting and service times on the abbey’s website: it is a living monastery, not just a monument.

In short

• Where: Grottaferrata, Castelli Romani, at the foot of Tusculum.
• Founded: 1004, Saint Nilus of Rossano; church consecrated in 1024.
• What makes it special: monks of the Byzantine rite in communion with Rome, for a thousand years.
• To see: the Pentecost mosaic, Domenichino’s frescoes (1608-1610), the archaeological museum.
• Curiosity: Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus was restored here.
• Nearby: what to see in Frascati, the Castelli Romani in one day.