The project will reach a new understanding and promote a timely revaluation of the early medieval church of Sant’Ambrogio alla Rienna, in the countryside of Montecorvino Rovella in the province of Salerno. Salerno was the capital established by Arichis II, the duke and self-proclaimed prince of southern Langobardia after Charlemagne’s conquest of northern Langobardia in 774.

Preliminary investigations undertaken at the church in 2017–18, funded by the British Academy and facilitated by the Municipality of Montecorvino Rovella and by the universities of Salerno and Birmingham, indicate its clear links to the material culture of the secular courts and the monasteries in southern Langobardia in the late eighth and ninth centuries. As the church underwent no substantial modifications in later centuries, it displays an exceptionally well preserved ninth-century fabric in fine masonry. It also houses one of the major preserved schemes of pictorial decoration from the same period, featuring one of the earliest images of the Theotokos, Mary as Mother of God, in western Europe. Yet, despite its importance, the church has never been systematically investigated.

The church lay at the border or more likely within the boundaries of a rural settlement of the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno. The latter was one of the greatest landowners in central Italy between the eighth and the ninth centuries. With a community made mostly of Longobard and Frankish monks, its cultural connections span from northern Europe to southern Italy. This could explain the choice for depicting four Milanese saints (Ambrose, Simplicianus, Gervasius, and Protasius) to the side of the Theotokos– saints whose cult was not practised in southern Langobardia.

The church of Sant’Ambrogio offers a unique case-study of early medieval culture at large and offers a wealth of materials relating to a range of scholarly disciplines for investigating political, social and material interaction between Longobard and Carolingian interests in a contact zone between monasticism, the Papacy, Longobards, Carolingians, Byzantium, and international pilgrimage routes. The core outcome of the project will be a multi-authored monograph dedicated to Sant’Ambrogio at Montecorvino. It will be supplemented by articles and lectures intended for public and scholarly audiences.

But besides these scientific goals, the project has at its core 1) the education of young scholars, from the area as well as from other regions, in history, archaeology, cultural heritage practices; 2) the restoration of the site, its maintenance, and promotion.