Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, esterno - The Monte Oliveto Maggiore Abbey by manortiz

Описание: Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore - The Monte Oliveto Maggiore Abbey
The Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore is located just south of Asciano in the Crete Senesi, near the picturesque village of Chiusure.
The hills around Chiusure characterized here mainly by an eroded landscape, give you a good impression of the Crete Senesi, a region with alternating green meadows, barren hills, and steep, weathered chalk cliffs. These are the so-called calanchi, rock formations composed of limestone, rock salt, and plaster. This sometimes moon-like landscape is also the backdrop for the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore.
Some beautiful walks in the vicinity of the abbey allow you to explore this region in an ideal way. In the middle of this Crete Senesi, in the most arid part of it, lies the abbey between high, dark cypresses. It was founded in 1313 by some nobles from Siena who were homesick for the simplicity of the Benedictine monastic rule. Only six years later the pope recognized the order of the Olivetans. Supported by mediators, the abbey became a kind of elite hermitage in central Tuscany.
The Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore is a large Benedictine monastery, 10 km south of Asciano. Its buildings, which are mostly of red brick, are conspicuous against the grey clayey and sandy soil — the Crete senesi which give this area of Tuscany its name.
It is a territorial abbey whose abbot functions as the bishop of the land within the abbey's possession, even though he is not consecrated as a bishop.
It is the mother-house of the Olivetans and the monastery later took the name of Monte Oliveto Maggiore ("the greater") to distinguish it from successive foundations at Florence, San Gimignano, Naples and elsewhere.
History
It was founded in 1313 by Bernardo Tolomei, a jurist from a prominent aristocratic family of Siena. In 1319 or 1320 it was approved by Bishop Guido Tarlati as Monte Oliveto, with reference to the Mount of Olives and in honour of Christ’s Passion. The monastery was begun in 1320, the new congregation being approved by Pope Clement VI in 1344.
The abbey was for centuries one of the main land possessors in the Siena region.
On January 18, 1765, the monastery was made the seat of the Territorial Abbacy of Monte Oliveto Maggiore.
Interior
The monastery is accessed through a drawbridge which leads to a medieval palace in red brickwork, surmounted by a massive quadrangular tower with barbicans and merlons. This edifice was begun in 1393 as the fortified gate of the complex; it was completed in 1526 and restored in the 19th century. Over the entrance arch is a terracotta depicting Madonna with Child and Two Angels attributed to the Della Robbia family, as well as the St Benedict Blessing nearby.
After the entrance structure is a long alley with cypresses, sided by the botanical garden of the old pharmacy (destroyed in 1896) and a cistern from 1533. At the alley's end is the bell tower, in Romanesque-Gothic style, and the apse of the church, which has a Gothic façade.
Chiostro Grande
The Chiostro Grande ("Great Cloister") has a rectangular plan and was realized between 1426 and 1443. On the oldest side it has a two-storey loggia and a pit, dating to 1439. The frescoes of the Life of St. Benedict painted by Luca Signorelli and il Sodoma, located in the cloister lunettes under the vaults, are considered masterworks of the Italian Renaissance.
The frescoes disposition follows St. Gregory's account of Benedict's life. Signorelli's paintings were executed in 1497-98, while Sodoma's were completed after 1505.
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