Roccamorice Eremo di San Bartolomeo

the hermitage of San Bartolomeo is one of the most spectacular and famous Celestinian hermitages in the Majella. It was built around 1250 on a pre-existing structure by Pope Celestine V. It features a coloration that is completely homogeneous to the rocks that encase it. The church and two small rooms for the hermits rise above the rocky terrace accessed via four staircases: one to the north, consisting of 30 irregular steps carved directly into the rock, one to the south, also carved from the rock, but longer and more irregular, and finally two in the center of the balcony, one of which served as a Scala Santa. The church's facade bears traces of a fresco depicting, in the lower part, an ostensorium and, in the upper part, two panels with Christ and a Madonna with Child. The interior is illuminated by a door-window. Along the left wall, there is a small spring of water, which, through a small channel, flows outside the church and loses itself in the rock. This water, considered holy, once mixed with the water from the spring beneath the hermitage, is collected in the holy water font.