An ancient monastic centre of Val d’Illasi, Badia Calavena is attested by an inscription dating back to 1040, currently exhibited in the courtyard of the Tomb of Juliet in Verona, which mentions the construction of a castle, by the Bishop of Verona Walterio da Ulma (1037 – 1055), on the Monte di San Pietro, a hill above the current town centre.

This building complex, consisting of the castle itself and the adjoining Church of St. Peter the Apostle, became the home of German monks of the Order of St. Benedict, turning into the small monastery thus mentioned in a rental rules document of 1133 and in a papal bull of Eugene III of 1145, where the “Monasterium Sancti Petri de Calavena” is clearly mentioned.

The abbey was called “della Calavena” because it was built in the piece of valley called “Calavena”. The name of the village below (current capital) derives from this “Badia della Calavena”.