A visit to the Viboldone Abbey at San Giuliano Milanese. Trip to Lombardy, Italy
Half a day wandering around, and not to stray too far from home, turn around Milan, and what's better than going to visit two monasteries spelndide: chiaravalle and Viboldone.
The monastery of Saint Peter in Viboldone is located just outside Milan, in the municipality of San Giuliano Milanese, a green expanse and is now an attractive place of peace and tranquility. Although still little known, the church opens its doors to anyone wishing to immerse themselves in meditation and get away from bustling city life. The Abbey was built by monks Humiliated, whose order is characterized by a strong desire for spiritual and moral renewal, as well as by the hope of a return to Christianity is not corrupt, since 1176 and represented one of the houses of all the humiliation notes Lombardy. The period of greatest fortune coincided with the end of the work of costuzione building occurred in 1348, while its decay began to show early signs in the fifteenth century and ended in February 1571, when Pope Pius V issued the papal bull Quemadmodum that decreed the suppression order. The church became property of the Benedictine monks of Monte Oliveto. During the Cisalpine Republic was a total loss of assets, in 1916 the Earl of Castelbarco Aldrighetti Albani, after having ordered the restoration, put at the disposal of Abbey Cardinal of Milan and was later assigned to a community of Benedictine nuns. The time frame in which the Abbey was built from the second half of the twelfth century to the second half of the fourteenth century, the architecture and then show that elements of both Romanesque Gothic. The architectural style is simple and the construction of the monastery is the work of an architect and an architect Lombard and Tuscan sculptor. The wind is in brick facade where they are present, however, insertions and features marble arches and columns that reflect the internal division into three naves. The portal, made of white marble and other sculptures, stands on the brick facade and the bell tower has mullioned windows. Inside, the three naves are separated by pillars and circular arches longitudinal and transverse ogive and are covered by cross vaults with colored circles at the center.
The frescoes inside, the most important of the three hundred and discovered and restored in the thirties, all derive from a complex iconographic program and are an important record of the painting of the Lombardy area. These frescoes are attributed to artists belonging to the school of Giotto, Florence fled following an outbreak of plague. Not to be forgotten are the beautiful gardens by the nuns.