Volterra | The Camaldolese Abbey

In addition to its monuments and numerous testimonies of art and history, Volterra offers a marvellous panorama of the hilly landscape that surrounds it, abruptly interrupted by the view of the Balze Volterrane, a natural phenomenon of erosion that led to the destruction of the largest Etruscan necropolis and the ruin of the Camaldolese Abbey.

It is a religious complex of the 11th century, although the current structure dates back to the 16th century and was designed by the architect Leon Battista Alberti, on which famous painters and artists worked. Noteworthy are the frescoes in the refectory depicting episodes from the life of San Giusto.

Only a few tombs have been found in the strips of land intact around the Camaldolese Abbey and near the Guerruccia plain at the western end of the town. A large section of the Etruscan walls, together with many houses, also disappeared in a sudden landslide in the early 19th century.

The monastery, abandoned in the last century due to the gradual approach of the Balze chasm, was long neglected and recently reopened for guided tours in summer.