Points of Interest
The Monastery, the Hermitage, and the Woodland
Scardavilla was quoted for the first time in 1225, as an annex of the monastery of S. Maria di Vincareto near Bertinoro. The small monastery of S. Maria di Scardavilla, whose partially transformed ruins can be seen in Scardavilla di sotto, is better described in a document dating back to 1241, from which it can be understood that the monks, besides prayer and contemplation, dedicated themselves to the cultivation of the fields and to cattle breeding (above all sheep and pigs); the toponym of the town itself derives from cardus and villus and recalls the carding of the sheep fleece. After being subject to different congregations, in the first years of the 16th century the monastery passed to the monks from Camaldoli, who since the birth of their order based it on the management of the famous forests of Casentino.
