Eremo di San Luca Pescopennataro

Located at an altitude of 1500 m a.s.l., the Hermitage of San Luca is in a place of particular natural beauty, built by exploiting a natural hollow at the base of a high stone wall, making it one of the most majestic hermitages created from a cave.
The interior is formed by the hollowing out of the rock, while the outer walls are built of stone or wood. It consists of two rooms with separate entrance doors: the first was used as a dwelling, the second as a chapel for praying, equipped with an altar with the picture of the Saint.
Legend has it that it was a place of rest and refuge for St Luke on his journey from Rome to Palestine. It is said that hermits lived for a long time in solitude and poverty in the ancient rock chapel.
In the Second World War it was used as a refuge by a group of New Zealand soldiers who had escaped from the prison camp of Fonte d'Amore in Sulmona. They were helped by the inhabitants of nearby villages, a gesture that led to the shooting of Fratelli Fiadino of Capracotta by German soldiers.
The inhabitants of Pescopennataro and the faithful of the surrounding area gather here every year on 10 September to take the picture of St. Luke and carry it in procession through the village, before taking it back on foot to the Hermitage on 18 October.