The ancient village of Roccavaldina was conquered by Romans, Byzantine and Arabs. Later in the Middle Ages, it was ruled by Roger I, who built numerous monasteries with the aim to spread the Christian culture over the area. The Valdina Castle was built as a stronghold in the 16th century and later transformed in a prive aristocratic house; the Chemistry Museum is an ancient shop created in 1628 which contains over 200 apothecary jars made with the local ceramics.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).