A short distance from the city hospital in the southwest outskirts of Spoleto stands an abbey dedicated to St Paolo Inter Vineas, mentioned in several historical texts from the ancient 6th century. In one of his writings, Gregorio the Great tells of a heretical Arian bishop who went suddenly blind when he forcefully tried to celebrate a Mass in the church. There is another mention of the church in a text from the 10th century when a women’s convent was founded. The church appears today as it was restructured in 1234 and again after it underwent major works completed in 1965 to restore the ancient Romanesque architecture.
The oldest part of the abbey is the cloister with round arches on alternating columns and pillars, which was part of the nuns’ convent in the 10th century.
The external façade is very similar to those of the town’s churches of San Pietro and San Ponziano, with the main door in three recessed frames and a beautiful decorative central rose window high above. Inside, the church has three aisles that end at the transept. Most of the frescos that once decorated the walls of the whole transept and apse were removed and, unfortunately, lost during restoration work. The remaining parts of old frescos have been attributed to at least two different artists seemingly between the 12th and 13th centuries.