A trip in Italy, Sept.–Oct. 2021
In September and October 2021, we spent three weeks touring the Italian regions of Abruzzo, Umbria, Marches and Emilia-Romagna, which we hadn’t visited yet.
Personally, I had my sights firmly set on a series of early Romanesque churches of high architectural and artistic interest, so you will see quite a few of those, in spite of the typical Italian administration-related problems I encountered, and which were both stupid and quite unpleasant.
There will also be other sorts of old stones, landscapes, etc., and I hope you will enjoy looking at them and have a good time doing so. If it makes you want to go, do, by all means, Italy is a wonderful country.
Today, I am uploading the last photos from our memorable visit to the San Pietro Abbey on Monte Conero in the province of Marches, not very far from the coastal city of Ancona.
Just like we had tried to do (so unsuccessfully) at the abbey of San Pietro in Valle in Umbria, we intended to spend a night at the very nice hotel into which the abbey of San Pietro has been converted on Monte Conero, so that we could both enjoy a nice stopover and have a look at what remained of the abbey church.
Unlike its Umbrian namesake, entrance to this San Pietro abbey church was free, even for people not staying at the hotel, and what we found inside was magnificent!
Besides, our room with a balcony and a gorgeous vista on the Adriatic and all the surrounding area was great, and the food at the restaurant that evening was quite enjoyable as well, so I can only recommend the place!
We had to drive way up to the top of Monte Conero to find the place, indeed a great location for an abbey. This one was built by Benedictine monks around Year 1000, as we know from a written source that it was fully functional and operational in 1037.
The original church was without any adornments inside, but pilasters and capitals were added around 1200. In the 16th century, the Benedictines were replaced by other orders between whose members there were some disputes, until the Camaldolese monks prevailed. They were those who remodeled the façade into the uninteresting one we can see today –truly the only part of the church that doesn’t deserve to be photographed!
Fine examples of pre-Romanesque and early Romanesque sculpture on the capitals in the nave: and finally, the classic symbol of the two-tailed siren, symbolizing femininity and sin.
A trip in Italy, Sept.–Oct. 2021
In September and October 2021, we spent three weeks touring the Italian regions of Abruzzo, Umbria, Marches and Emilia-Romagna, which we hadn’t visited yet.
Personally, I had my sights firmly set on a series of early Romanesque churches of high architectural and artistic interest, so you will see quite a few of those, in spite of the typical Italian administration-related problems I encountered, and which were both stupid and quite unpleasant.
There will also be other sorts of old stones, landscapes, etc., and I hope you will enjoy looking at them and have a good time doing so. If it makes you want to go, do, by all means, Italy is a wonderful country.
Today, I am uploading the last photos from our memorable visit to the San Pietro Abbey on Monte Conero in the province of Marches, not very far from the coastal city of Ancona.
Just like we had tried to do (so unsuccessfully) at the abbey of San Pietro in Valle in Umbria, we intended to spend a night at the very nice hotel into which the abbey of San Pietro has been converted on Monte Conero, so that we could both enjoy a nice stopover and have a look at what remained of the abbey church.
Unlike its Umbrian namesake, entrance to this San Pietro abbey church was free, even for people not staying at the hotel, and what we found inside was magnificent!
Besides, our room with a balcony and a gorgeous vista on the Adriatic and all the surrounding area was great, and the food at the restaurant that evening was quite enjoyable as well, so I can only recommend the place!
We had to drive way up to the top of Monte Conero to find the place, indeed a great location for an abbey. This one was built by Benedictine monks around Year 1000, as we know from a written source that it was fully functional and operational in 1037.
The original church was without any adornments inside, but pilasters and capitals were added around 1200. In the 16th century, the Benedictines were replaced by other orders between whose members there were some disputes, until the Camaldolese monks prevailed. They were those who remodeled the façade into the uninteresting one we can see today –truly the only part of the church that doesn’t deserve to be photographed!
Fine examples of pre-Romanesque and early Romanesque sculpture on the capitals in the nave: and finally, the classic symbol of the two-tailed siren, symbolizing femininity and sin.