In fact, as it emerged from an inspection report carried out in 1569 by the procurator and by the vicar-general of the Cistercians (Nicola Boucherat and Tommaso Laceronis), three quarters of the cloister was by then falling down, the tabernacle was in ruins, and the monks were poor and living in misery. Later, the structures of the abbey underwent serious damage in the earthquake of 1638 and then again in the earthquake of 1783. In 1784, the Holy Fund placed all the goods of the abbey on sale. The few remaining monks were transferred to Cosenza in 1795. From then on the abbey began to be despoiled, and it even became a refuge for bands of brigands. Only a few works of art were saved, inasmuch as they were moved to the churches in nearby villages where one can still admire them today.

Ruins of the Abbey of Corazzo
(Villella private archive)
Click to Enlarge

In the parish Church of S. Giovanni Battista in Soveria Mannelli one can see the great altar (a national monument) of prized polychrome marbles, a basin for holy water, and the balustrade in front of the altar. In the Church of the Holy Spirit in Castagna, one finds a large marble relief of the Virgin (which had been at the entrance way of the church in Corazzo), and the baptismal font. A ciborium is preserved in the Church of the Assumption of Scigliano, made of different marbles decorated with bas-reliefs. In the Church of S. Tommaso in Soveria Mannelli, one finds a statue of the archangel S. Michael. In the Church of S. Andrea in Conflenti, there is an altar and, perhaps, a bell previously belonging to the abbey.