The Monastery of St. Scholastica is the most ancient, functioning Benedictine monastery in the world and is also known for being the 'birthplace of Italian printing.”
It is the only monastery of the 12 founded by St. Benedict in the surrounding valley to survive earthquakes and Saracen destruction. Until the end of the 12th century , it was also the only monastery in Subiaco.
Situated at 510 m above sea level, to the east of Subiaco, the monastery is parallel to the valley where hermits and monks have lived for centuries in contemplation, the reason why it is also known as “holy valley”.
It is a complex of buildings built in different styles and at different times: the 20th century entrance, with the motto 'ora et labora/prey and work' written over it leads onto the first or “Renaissance” cloister dating to the 16th century. That leads into the second or Gothic cloister which dates to the 14th century which leads into the third or Cosmatesque cloister, from the 13th century. The belltower is from the 12th century and the neo-classical church from the end of 1700 when it was designed by Giacomo Quarenghi and become the last of 5 churches to be built on the same site.
The Refectory is to the west of the splendid Cosmatesque cloister, which was once below the Dormitory.
The library, to the north of the Gothic cloister, contains 150,000 volumes, 213 incunabola, approximately 4,000 parchments scrolls and the famous Colonna Archive.

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