Abbey of San Galgano

{{Infobox religious building

| building_name = Abbey of San Galgano
{{lang|it|Abbazia di San Galgano}} {{in lang|it}}

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| image = San Galgano Abbey interior 03.jpg

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| caption = Interior of the abbey

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| location = Chiusdino, Tuscany, Italy

| geo = {{coord|43|8|57.87|N|11|9|20.26|E|region:IT_type:landmark|display=inline, title}}

| religious_affiliation = Catholic

| rite = Roman Rite

| province = Archdiocese of Siena-Colle di Val d'Elsa-Montalcino

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| architecture_style = Italian Gothic

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| groundbreaking = 1218

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The Abbey of Saint Galgano was a Cistercian Monastery founded in the valley of the river Merse between the towns of Chiusdino and Monticiano, in the province of Siena, region of Tuscany, Italy. Presently, the roofless walls of the Gothic style 13th-century Abbey church still stand.

File:San Galgano Spada nella roccia.JPG in the stone at Eremo di Montesiepi]]

Nearby are the chapel or Eremo or Rotonda di Montesiepi (1185), the tomb of Saint Galgano and the purported site of his death in 1181, a sword said to have been driven into a stone by Galgano,{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/16/rorycarroll.theobserver|title=Tuscany's Excalibur is the real thing, say scientists|last=Carroll|first=Rory|date=2001-09-16|website=the Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-11-03}}{{Cite journal|url=http://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=54814|title=Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae. Fasc. 27 (2014)|last=Chodyński|first=Antoni Romuald|journal=IAIE Pan, Call No. P III 349 |date=2014|publisher=Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of Polish Academy of Sciences}} and a chapel with frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

History

The abbey formed around the site of the former hermitage of Galgano Guidotti (San Galgano), and construction of the church began around 1220, and was completed some six decades later. The abbey grew in wealth and became allied with the Republic of Siena. Monks from the abbey routinely served as Camarlinghi di Biccherna,[https://books.google.com/books?id=dhgvAAAAYAAJ Siena: The Story of Mediaeval Commune], by Ferdinand Schevill, page 375. i.e. high magistrates of the main financial institution of the republic.{{cite web |url= http://www.archiviodistato.siena.it/museobiccherne/it/140/la-biccherna|title= La Biccherna|author= |date= |website= www.archiviodistato.siena.it|publisher= |language= Italian|access-date= 9 February 2020}}

However within a century, the republic failed to protect it from roving condottieri, and John Hawkwood and his men despoiled the monastery beginning in 1363. By the end of the 14th-century, only the abbot remained in the monastery.Schevill, page 379.

The abbey stayed impoverished and kept decaying for nearly four centuries. Cardinal Giuseppe Maria Feroni was abbot from 1765 to 1767. In 1786, the campanile fell, taking with it the roof of the church. The ruins were looted for building material. Some restorations occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, but the church remains a ruin. The long tall nave with its windows and an apse rose window still stand. The abbey's chapter house and part of the scriptorium also remain.

The Rotonda chapel was restored in 1924 and retains its peculiar medieval shape, similar to earlier Ancient Roman mausoleums.[https://books.google.com/books?id=QdBAAAAAYAAJ The Story of Siena and San Gimignano], by Edmund Garratt Gardner, page 313.[http://www.prolocochiusdino.it/index.php?/Abbazia-di-San-Galgano/abbazia-di-san-galgano.html Pro Loco Chiusdino], tourism site for commune.

Popular culture

The abbey was the location where parts of Andrei Tarkovsky's 1983 film Nostalghia were shot.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086022/locations Filming locations of Nostalghia] at the Internet Movie Database