Walls and Memory: The Abbey of San Sebastiano at Alatri (Lazio), from Late Roman Monastery to Renaissance Villa and Beyond

The Archaeology of the Earliest Monasteries in Italy and France (Second Half of the Fourth Century to the Eighth Century)

“…Some of these elements have been associated, for instance, with archaeological material found in the complex uncovered near Alatri and identified with the monastery mentioned by Gregory the Great 20 as located in the region called Campania (in Campaniae partibus). In this context, a surrounding wall with a single entrance encloses distinctive areas, including a vegetable garden, a cemetery, a two storied rectangular building which have been identified as the dormitory and refectory, as well as religious structure and service buildings 21 . The identification, however, of this complex with a monastery, as well as its chronology, is very problematic 22 , also considering that written sources about the site are very late.…”

Early Christian Archaeology: A State of the Field

“…No definitive monastery of this date has been excavated, although many have been proposed. The most convincing of these proposals are based on textual information – the proposed monastery at San Sebastiano in Alatri (Fentress et al. 2005), mentioned in the Dialogues of Benedict, or the earlier domus near the church at Hippo (Bizot 2005), where Augustine described his own monastery.…”