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Hi everybody! I finally uploaded all Those photos I Took a couple of weeks ago to show Them as promised, the title eat from a previous post I wrote on January 2009 and it means "Second Church Tour" in Latin, just to stick with STIs Religious own languange. :) Here you'll see Three Different places I visited recently ... They will follow this order:

- The Benedictine abbey of Chiaravalle Milanese
- The Great Charterhouse of Pavia
- The rural church of St. Vincent in Galliano

Come on ... Want to join me? =) If you like photos, history and arts, this is the right place! Someone of you already know Something about what I'm going to say, Since I've Already mention it, I'd like to know your opinion anyway.




The Cistercian abbey of Chiaravalle Milanese WAS Founded in 1135 by St. Bernard of Clairvaux to reclaim the marshy area near Milan, Lombardy. WAS The current building completed in the thirteenth century and Then, DURING the XIV century, added the wonderful dome They Used as bell-tower, that's an architecural heredity of Those French monasteries ADOPTED we as reference for the Benedictine Order.

This tower is 56 meters (184 feet) tall and it's called "Ciribiriciaccola" Used To Because storks nest up there, it's an onomatopoeic term to define oldthe strange sound and noises those animals used to make.


Here's the main entrance to the sacred enclosure from behind: It's tipical to see red bricks and white stones in medieval and renaissance buildings like this in Lombardy and many Padan regions. (The other side was renovated using a simple classical style with light baroque aftertaste)


The facade preserves its romanesque look after all; porch and secondary doors were modified in the XVII century. (they were probably changed to give more symmetry and balance, unfortunately the medieval frescos of the doorposts were heavily damaged)


The nave is very elegant and sober if we don't consider those baroque frescos: That Needs a lot of r Restorations Because It Has Been abandoned for a long time, pero, Our monks slowly repairing small sections Are When They're Able to)


Let's go somewhere else ... if you head south, you will find the
Great Charterhouse of Pavia (also Called gratiarum Carthusia Because It's dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mother of Grace), this huge Religious complex WAS Founded in
1396
by Gian Galeazzo Visconti
, first Duke of Milan. It Was Designed as Mausoleum for the Visconti family, this project WAS perpetrated by the Sforza family years later.


Here's the main entrance to the courtyard. Secondary


dependaces,stables and agricultural warehouses. The charterhouse used to be a very important economic and artistic center; many important artists worked here and left their spectacular masterpieces, for this reason, everything was carefully preserved. (it doesn't need restorations, you'll notice it later)

The courtyard ... The renaissance facade (completed in 1507 , but still unfinished) and the Ducal Palace on the right.


Each marble panel or statue tells a story ... with Roman characters, Medieval characters and Biblical characters.


The Portal from outside.


Here you can see a single column from the right window: There're not enough words to describe this building!


Now we can admire the main portal from inside ... structure and decorations are just spectacular: I've never seen such a perfect building before; here Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neo-Classical live together in armony. It's almost organic!
I couldn't take photos once passed the gate near the transept, but there were such marvelous things ... like the monumental
tomb of Gian Galeazzo Visconti
and his wife or the
cenotaph of Ludovico Maria Sforza called
"The Moor"
and Beatrice d'Este. Many frescos were painted by Ambrogio da Fossano called
"The Bergognone"s; that large, round stone-thing is the baptismal font where new members of the Christian Community used to get fully immersed.


The dome ...


... and some staris to go upstairs!

The only bell around. The gallery called "Matroneum" : it's a typical feature of many medieval religious buildings.
A bronze model of the complex. The third nave collapsed after a fire in the XVIII century because it was transformed into an agricultural warehouse; probably both buildings were already abandoned in the late XVI century anyway.
If you take a walk around the parkmense events considering how small this is church.

The second ship ...


Under the altar There's a small crypt with Some Relics of local saints and martyrs too.

St. Savinus
This is (I think I have a nice face after all).


Well, Our journey ends here! I really hope you enjoyed it. =) I did my best to report as Many visual informations as possible, They Probably Could Be Useful as well. Photos Are Good, But They Can not show you the real atmosphere; BTW, let me know if I wrote Something Wrong, Because This Was a very long post and I'm not sure about Certain phrases. : P If you want to Ask Any kind of question, I'll be happy to answer you: there're So Many Things t