The Abbey of Sant'Antimo () is a former Benedictine monastery located in Castelnuovo dell'Abate, in the

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

of Montalcino, Tuscany, central Italy. It is approximately 10 km from Montalcino about 9 km from the Via Francigena, the

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

route to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. After many years of disuse, the abbey was reoccupied in 1992 by a small community of Premonstratensian

Canons Regular The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule ( and κανών, ''kanon'', in Greek) and are generally organised into Religious order (Catholic), religious orders, differing from both Secular clergy, ...

. Since January 2016, the occupants are a community of monks of the Olivetan Benedictine order. A tributary of the river Orcia, the Starcia, runs near the abbey.

The name

The name of the abbey may refer to Saint Anthimus of Rome, whose relics were supposedly moved here during the late 8th century.Adriano Peroni, Grazia Tucci, ''Nuove ricerche su Sant'Antimo'', Alinea Editrice, 2008

History

The origins of the abbey are obscure. Archeological investigation of the site is incomplete, but has yielded artifacts from Late Classical times. The foundation of the original Benedictine monastery dates to the time of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

. The various accounts of Charlemagne founding the abbey are without direct historical foundation; they first appear in a document of the emperor Henry III from 1051. The earliest document relating to the abbey is a land grant of

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...

dated December 813, now in the Archivio di Stato of Siena. The abbot received full temporal powers in an imperial document of about 952. Following a bequest of Bernardo degli Ardengheschi, construction of the present church was begun before 1118, a date which is inscribed on the altar step and on a column to the left of it. Parts of the earlier structure remain visible in the crypt and in the so-called Cappella Carolingia, or Carolingian chapel. This was the period of greatest power of the abbey, which had authority over 38 churches, from Pisa to Grosseto, and control of about 1000 ''mansi'', or farm estates, throughout Tuscany. The most important possession of the abbey was the castle of Montalcino, which was the residence of the abbot. In the mid-12th century, halted in its expansion northwards by

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

moved its attention to Montalcino. In 1145 the monks were forced to cede the castle of Radicofani the Sienese. In 1189 Pope Clement III placed the '' pieve'' of Montalcino under the bishop of Siena. Filippo Malavolti, '' podestà'' of Siena, attacked and partly destroyed Montalcino in 1200. An agreement of 1212 stated that the abbey had to hand over a quarter of its territories to Siena, including Montalcino. In 1291 Pope Nicholas IV ordered the union of the abbey with the Guglielmites, a reformed branch of the Benedectines, in order to give back strength to the abbey. However, after another period of decay in the 15th century, Pope Pius II annexed St. Antimus to the new diocese of Montalcino- Pienza (1462), whose bishop was Pius' nephew. The abbey decayed to the point that in the 19th century it was used as stable. In the 1870s the Italian state restored it. In 1992 the abbey became again an active monastery with the arrival of a new religious community of

of the Order of Premontre.

Architecture

Of the Carolingian edifice, the apse (called ''Cappella Carolingia'') and the portal, richly decorated with animal and vegetable motifs, are visible. The Carolingian chapel has frescoes by Giovanni d'Asciano with stories of St. Benedict and currently acts as sacristy. Under the chapel is a crypt with a nave and two aisles divided by four columns. The ''Sala Capitolare'' (Capitular Hall) is decorated with a triple mullioned window with richly decorated capitals. Typically French in inspiration is the

ambulatory The ambulatory ( 'walking place') is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th century but by the 13t ...

with radial chapels. In Italy this scheme is known only in Santa Trinità of Venosa and the Cathedrals of Acerenza and Aversa, all in southern Italy, and in Santa Maria of Piè di Chianti, Marche. The ambulatory housed the pilgrims to pray the ''Martyrium'', the place where the Saint's relic are placed. The aisles and the ambulatory are groin vaulted, while the nave has

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

es. The nave, which is c. 20-m high, is divided into three sections: the huge arcades, the matronaeum and the ' (upper floor). Notable is the so-called capital of "Daniel in the lions' den", work of the French Master of Cabestany. It shows Daniel praying between the hungry lions, and, on the other sides, the lions devouring the accusers. The outer walls are made of alabaster; one can shine a light against the walls and see the light translated/reflected back out to the eye.

References

External links

Adrian Fletcher’s Paradoxplace Sant’Antimo Photograph Pages
{{Authority control Monasteries in Tuscany 770s establishments 8th-century establishments in Italy Christian monasteries established in the 8th century 12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Romanesque architecture in Tuscany Benedictine monasteries in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Montalcino

The name

History

Architecture

References

Further reading

External links