Church of St. James

The parish church of Saint James stands on the site of the Benedictine abbey after which the town was named (Lat. abbatia). An inscription on the lintel of the main entrance records the construction of the church in 1506; the monastery was taken over by the Augustinians in 1555, and by the Jesuits in 1723. The church was remodeled in 1748 and received a vault with Baroque groined bays, while in the 1930s the nave was extended and widened with an apsidal sanctuary around which runs an ambulatory of Neo-Romanesque character. Adjacent to the church are a low bell tower with biforate windows and an atrium, and not far away, on a rock by the sea, stands the 'Girl with a Seagull' statue.