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Leaving Milano through the Porta
Romana, after having passed in order Corso Lodi, piazzale Corvetto,via
Omero and via S. Dionigi we reach via S.Arialdo: here the city suddenly
stops and we are in open country. Just 7-8 Km from the Duomo,
and a mere 1 Km from Metanopoli sky scrapers and the beginning of the
Autostrada del Sole stands the abbey of Chiaravalle, over which looms
its tall tower, which the milanese have affectionately called
"Ciribicciacola".
The abbey was founded in 1135 in a swamp area south of the city by
cistercentium monks (the name comes from the founding place of the
order, the French Citeaux, Cistercium in Latin), sent there a year
earlier by the spiritual leader of their order, Bernard, the future S.
Bernard of Clairvoux, he who gave the Knights Templar their canon.
The
church we see now was built in 1150, on the sight of the first simple
church, perfectly oriented east-west, as all the cistercentium abbeys.
Along with building the abbey the monks
dedicated themselves to drainage of the terrain, which permitted the
usage of the abbeys lands for cattle, that eventually allowed
a milk production far superior to its needs.
So the monks devised a special way of
conserving the milk and invented a new variety of cheese which was
later called Grana Padano, thanks to natures biochemical
processes, which at the time where looked upon as mysterious alchemies.
The building of the tower dates to the years 1329-40, and was
probably the work of Francesco Pecorari, from Cremona.
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In 1490 the great Bramante works on
Chiaravalle: his is the cloister, the capitular and some paintings.
From this moment on many masterpieces of art took life in the abbey,
from the flemmish fresco paintings from the XVI and XVII century, to
the wonderfull wodden chorus, worked by Carlo Gravaglia between 1640-45;
from Bernardo Luinis "Madonna dell Buona Notte" (XVI century) to the
Baroque main altar; from the XVI century paintings kept in the
sacristy, to the remaining wall painting which depicts Guglielmo I da
Rizzolo, Archbyshop of Milan Between 1230 and 1241.
In 1798 the Cisalpin Repubblic forced the monks to leave and the abbey
became the parish church of the nearby village, its riches sold.
From that date the abbey was slowly demolished.
In 1861 the building of the MILAN-GENOVA train line compleatly
destroyed Bramantes cloister.
In 1894-98 the Regional Office for the Conservation of Monuments bought
the abbey back from private families and slowly began a general
restoration of the construction.
In 1952 due to the interest of Cardinal Shuster, the cistercentians
return to Chiaravalle. The city of Milano gave them real estate and
vegetable gardens with a 29 year renewable usufruct. In 1958
the reconstruction of the cloister began, true hart of the monastic
citadel. Since 1970 a gradual work has restored the paintings, the
foundations and the square , returning to it's ancient splendour one of
Italy’s most important abbeys. |
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Pictures
from the Chiaravalle Abbey
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