The abbey was dissolved by the Italian government in 1866. The building became a national monument with😄 the monks as custodians of its treasures. In 1944 during World War II, it was the site of the Battle😄 of Monte Cassino and the building was destroyed by Allied bombing.

The monastery was rebuilt in the postwar years and completed by 1964. The town😄 had been pulverised and the plain was a cratered wilderness. In fact, so great was the damage that a new😄 town was created on freshly drained land while nature gradually reclaimed the ruins of the old.