Santa Maria Arabona is a Cistercian abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 in Abruzzo

Abruzzo

Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...

, in central Italy. It is located at Manoppello

Manoppello

Manoppello is a comune in Abruzzo, in the province of Pescara, Italy.It is famous for having a church which contains an image which has been suggested to be the Veil of Veronica.Also notable is the Romanesque abbey of Santa Maria Arabona....

 in the frazione

Frazione

A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

also called Santa Maria Arabona. In Roman times

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 the area was sacred to the goddess of fertility and virginity Bona Dea

Bona Dea

Bona Dea was a divinity in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state and people...

.

The most important of the abbey buildings still extant is its church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, whose construction began in 1208 with the transept

Transept

For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...

 and the apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

. The edifice remained partly unfinished, due to financial and political troubles within the order.

The church is built on the Latin Cross plan, with the nave ending in an apse housing the high altar. The aisles support the ceiling. The interior is very sober, apart from the richly decorated tabernacle

Church tabernacle

A tabernacle is the fixed, locked box in which, in some Christian churches, the Eucharist is "reserved" . A less obvious container, set into the wall, is called an aumbry....

 and Paschal candle

Paschal candle

The Paschal candle is a large, white candle used at liturgy in the Western Rites of Christianity . A new Paschal candle is blessed and lit every year at Easter, and is used throughout the Paschal season which is during Easter and then throughout the year on special occasions, such as baptisms and...

 in Gothic

Gothic art

Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...

 style. The choir contains fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es by Antonio Martini di Atri dated 1377.

The church, which was restored in the 1950s, is surrounded by a park from which the rest of the abbey is accessed.