Santa Maria di Rifesi monastery
| Santa Maria di Rifesi monastery | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates: | 37 ° 36 '29.5 " N , 13 ° 20' 39.2" E |
| Serial number according to Janauschek |
482 |
| founding year | 1170 by Benedictines |
| Cistercian since | 1188 |
| Mother monastery | Balamand Monastery |
| Primary Abbey | Morimond Monastery |
|
Daughter monasteries |
no |
The Santa Maria di Rifesi monastery is a former Cistercian monastery near Burgio in Sicily . The former monastery church is now a pilgrimage church .
history
The monastery was founded in 1170 by an Ansaldo, castellan of the Palazzo Reale in Palermo , presumably for Benedictines . In 1188 it was occupied by Cistercians who had fled the monastery of SS. Trinitas de Refech in the Middle East before the advancing troops of Saladin . In a bull from 1198, which was confirmed in Palermo in 1271, Pope Innocent III. the monastery under his protection, confirmed possessions and privileges that made the convent practically independent of the influence of the Bishop of Agrigento . Rifesi was explicitly mentioned here as a subsidiary of the Balamand Abbey. No information can be given about the end of the monastery life. The Chiesa Madre of Burgio preserves a Byzantine crucifix which the monks are said to have brought from the Middle East.
Buildings and plant
The monastery church of Santa Maria di Rifesi was built in the Norman Gothic style in strict, simple forms and closes in the east with a flat semicircular apse . The enclosure was located south of the church and has been destroyed to the ground.
literature
- Lynn Townsend White: Latin Monasticism in Norman Sicily. The Mediaeval Academy of America, Cambridge MA 1938, pp. 172-177.