The Abbey of San Claudio is located in a remote place in the Chienti Valley. San Claudio al Chienti was built around 1030. The Romanesque architecture is extraordinary and has led to long discussions among scholars. It was erected on the remains of a Roman villa. It has a plan internally divided by four columns to form a Greek cross inscribed in a square. Along the perimeter, there are semicircular apses The building also has two floors with a lower and an upper church. Finally, the facade is flanked by two cylindrical towers.

While some scholars have seen mainly Byzantine influences, Dr. Hildgard Sahlers argued in 1998 "The combination of trikonchos, four-column square, and double chapel created a new type of building that could fulfill the function of a pieve and palace chapel at the same time. Its succession extends to the area north of the Alps."

The lower church

The former buildings of the monastery now house a hotel and a restaurant.