The Abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone is a large complex of

Benedictine order , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastic buildings, including a church and cloisters, located in town of

San Benedetto Po San Benedetto Po ( Lower Mantovano: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Mantua in the Italian region Lombardy, located about southeast of Milan and about southeast of Mantua. It is best known as the location of the Polirone Abbe ...

Province of Mantua The Province of Mantua ( it, provincia di Mantova; Mantovano, Lower Mantovano: ; Upper Mantovano: ) is a province in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Mantua. It is bordered to the north-east by the Province o ...

, Region of

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

, Italy. The complex, now belonging to the city, houses offices, a museum, and is open to visitors.

History

The abbey was founded in 1007 by Tedald, count of

Canossa Canossa ( Reggiano: ) is a ''comune'' and castle town in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is where Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV did penance in 1077 and stood three days bare-headed in the snow to reverse his excom ...

, the paternal grandfather of Matilda of Canossa, countess of Tuscany, with a grant to the

Benedictine monks The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedic ...

, of half his land lying between the rivers Po and

Lirone The lirone (or lira da gamba) is the bass member of the '' lira'' family of instruments that was popular in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It is a bowed string instrument with between 9 and 16 gut strings and a fretted neck. When play ...

, prompting the title "in Polirone". Polirone was the monastery most closely associated with his granddaughter, Matilda, who granted estates and dependencies.

Boniface III, Margrave of Tuscany Boniface III (also ''Boniface IV'' or ''Boniface of Canossa'') (c. 985 – 6 May 1052), son of Tedald of Canossa and the father of Matilda of Tuscany, was the most powerful north Italian prince of his age. By inheritance he was count (or lord) of ...

made further grants and commissioned a larger church, housing the remains of the hermit, Simeon of Polirone (died 1016). In 1077 the community passed into the reformed

Benedictines , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

under the

Abbey of Cluny Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter. The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churches ...

. At the time of the

Gregorian reform The Gregorian Reforms were a series of reforms initiated by Pope Gregory VII and the circle he formed in the papal curia, c. 1050–80, which dealt with the moral integrity and independence of the clergy. The reforms are considered to be nam ...

s, the abbot was one of the principal proponents of the papacy in the

Investiture Conflict The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monast ...

. From 1115 until 1632, the abbey church housed the''arca'' raised on eight columns housing the mortal remains of Matilda of Canossa, who had selected Polirone as her memorial place, rather than the ancestral mortuary church of Canossa. For centuries she was accorded almost the veneration of a founding

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

at Polirone. Her body was transferred to the

Basilica of St. Peter The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a Church (building), church built in the Renaissance architecture, Renaissanc ...

, Rome, in 1632. Polirone was one of the richest

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

s of northern Italy. In the 15th century, Guido Gonzaga, abbot ''

in commendam In canon law, commendam (or ''in commendam'') was a form of transferring an ecclesiastical benefice ''in trust'' to the ''custody'' of a patron. The phrase ''in commendam'' was originally applied to the provisional occupation of an ecclesiastical ...

'', rebuilt the church in late

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. The abbey church was rebuilt again to

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

style designs of

Giulio Romano Giulio Romano (, ; – 1 November 1546), is the acquired name of Giulio Pippi, who was an Italian painter and architect. He was a pupil of Raphael, and his stylistic deviations from High Renaissance classicism help define the sixteenth-centu ...

, in 1539-44, but some floor mosaics and sculptural details survive from the earlier church. The wall and vaults were extensively frescoed, by

Antonio da Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

and

Antonio Begarelli Antonio Begarelli, also known as Begarino (1499–1565) was an Italian sculptor. He was born at Modena, and is said to have been instructed by Giovanni dell'Abbate, the father of the painter Niccolò. Begarelli worked chiefly in Modena, where m ...

, among others. Funding for reconstruction was posthumously granted by two main donors: Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola, sister of the humanist

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, ...

, greeted by the monastic community as a "new Matilda"; and Cesare d'Arsago. Thirty-one figures by

of Modena were provided for the church, and

Paolo Veronese Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...

painted three altarpieces in 1562.Beverly Louise Brown, "Veronese and the Church Triumphant: The Altarpieces for San Benedetto Po" ''Artibus et Historiae'' 18 No. 35 (1997:51-64). Polirone - Cloister of Saint Simeon

In 1797, the abbey was secularized by Napoleonic rulers. Three cloisters, the free-standing great

refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the La ...

(1478–79), the "new" infirmary (1584), and the abbey church are still present, and open to visitors. The contents of the library were added to the Library of Mantua. Three themed itineraries of the monastery, offered since the millennium celebration of 2007, concentrate on aspects of the cloistered life at Polirone: "Land and daily bread", "Herbs and monks", and "Prayer and reading".

References

External links

Visual Lombardia:San Benedetto Po, Abbazia di Polirone
{{Authority control Benedictine monasteries in Italy Monasteries in Lombardy Renaissance architecture in Lombardy Gothic architecture in Lombardy Churches in the province of Mantua Christian monasteries established in the 11th century 7 Most Endangered Programme Matilda of Tuscany