The Oratorio of St. Peregrine

The Oratorio of San Pellegrino, which was reserved to the liturgy of the Benedictine monastery. According to tradition, the church was founded by Charlemagne who, as reported in a document of the end of the 8th century, while in Abruzzo at Settefonti, near to the ancient Roman city of Peltuinum, had seen in dream a pilgrim that begged him to complete a church in honor of San Pellegrino, a Christian martyr much beloved in the area. So Charlemagne gave to the abbey of Farfa vast lands, and the Benedictine monks began to build on the site what was to become the monastery of Momenaco.

Under a stone on the right-hand side of the altar the body of the saint is said to be buried. The outside is very simple, irregular, typical of a rather primitive architecture. The inside instead is unique for the marvellous frescoes that covers vaults and walls entirely for over 470 square meters. Two "plutei" in the center of the church, representing a dragon and a griffin respectively, divide the environment into two reserved sectors, as in the early Christian churches, one for the baptizes and the other for the catechumens. The frescoes of the oratory represent episodes of sacred history belonging to four cycles: the Childhood of Christ, the Passion, the Final Judgment, the life of Saint Pellegrino.