elzbietapacuszka
Walls that have seen a lot...
The year is 1148, when Galgano Guidotti is born into a wealthy noble family living in the nearby town of Chiusdino. The boy grows up in prosperity and peace, far from the poverty and everyday problems of most of his contemporaries. As a young man, he leads a carefree life, becomes a knight and everything indicates that he will lead a life identical to his wealthy ancestors. And suddenly one night - as the legend goes - Galgano experiences an epiphany and a calling. At the age of 32, he abandons his prosperous life and settles on the Montesiepi hill as a hermit. He dies only a year later. After abandoning his prosperous life, Galgano plunges his sword into a rock on the Montesiepi hill. He is also buried there after his death, and four years later, construction of a rather original, Romanesque temple begins above the sword. It is a small rotunda topped with a dome, to which residential buildings are attached. From the church there is a beautiful view of the gentle hills of Val di Merse.
About five decades after the death of the hermit Guidotti, Cistercians from the Casamari monastery in Lazio arrived in the meadows at the foot of Montesiepi Hill and began to build a temple and adjacent monastic buildings in Galgano's honour. It was the first Gothic church in Tuscany, which later became the inspiration for the builders of the Cathedral in Siena. The monks thrived in these lands until the mid-14th century, when a famine, followed by a terrible plague epidemic, decimated the population of Tuscany.
The Cistercian order began to decline, the expansion of the abbey was halted, and the monks left Val di Merse. The final blow came on a stormy night in the late 18th century, when a lightning strike allegedly caused the vault and bell tower to collapse. Today, the ruins of the Abbey of San Galgano are a secular building.
Walls that have seen a lot...
The year is 1148, when Galgano Guidotti is born into a wealthy noble family living in the nearby town of Chiusdino. The boy grows up in prosperity and peace, far from the poverty and everyday problems of most of his contemporaries. As a young man, he leads a carefree life, becomes a knight and everything indicates that he will lead a life identical to his wealthy ancestors. And suddenly one night - as the legend goes - Galgano experiences an epiphany and a calling. At the age of 32, he abandons his prosperous life and settles on the Montesiepi hill as a hermit. He dies only a year later. After abandoning his prosperous life, Galgano plunges his sword into a rock on the Montesiepi hill. He is also buried there after his death, and four years later, construction of a rather original, Romanesque temple begins above the sword. It is a small rotunda topped with a dome, to which residential buildings are attached. From the church there is a beautiful view of the gentle hills of Val di Merse.
About five decades after the death of the hermit Guidotti, Cistercians from the Casamari monastery in Lazio arrived in the meadows at the foot of Montesiepi Hill and began to build a temple and adjacent monastic buildings in Galgano's honour. It was the first Gothic church in Tuscany, which later became the inspiration for the builders of the Cathedral in Siena. The monks thrived in these lands until the mid-14th century, when a famine, followed by a terrible plague epidemic, decimated the population of Tuscany.
The Cistercian order began to decline, the expansion of the abbey was halted, and the monks left Val di Merse. The final blow came on a stormy night in the late 18th century, when a lightning strike allegedly caused the vault and bell tower to collapse. Today, the ruins of the Abbey of San Galgano are a secular building.