Pomposa Abbey
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Pomposa (Latin Abbatia Sanctae Mariae Pomposae ) is a former abbey of the Benedictine order at the mouth of the Po in northern Italy . It is located in the municipality of Codigoro in the province of Ferrara .
history
A small church already existed on this site in the 6th century. The first Benedictine monks settled here around the middle of the 9th century. The first written information about the monastery is found in a fragment of a letter from Pope John VIII to Emperor Ludwig II in 874. The monastery benefited from its location on a fertile island surrounded by two arms of the Po near the “strada romea ”between Venice or Ravenna and Rome . As in many other areas, the monks did true pioneering work, true to their motto “ ora et labora ”. A flourishing agriculture was the result.
The monastery quickly became one of the most important religious and cultural centers nationwide and reached its greatest heyday after the year 1000. In this phase the spiritual, political and legislative power of the respective abbot extended to all surrounding communities.
Alternating between the bishops of Comacchio , the monastery of San Salvatore in Pavia and the empire, Pomposa experienced its not only political heyday in the 10th and 11th centuries. There were good relations with the Ottonian-Salian emperors, but also with church reform. The abbey had the climax of its cultural and spiritual development when it was headed by St. Guido degli Strambiati (1008-1046). This abbot introduced great severity into the life of the more than 100 monks. Another person who lived in the abbey during this period was Guido , a monk of the same name (who is also called "Guido of Arezzo" because he later stayed in this city for a long time). He is the inventor of modern music notation .
A natural disaster led to the decline of Pomposa. In 1152 the Po broke through the dams in a flood above Ferrara and shifted its bed. As a result, the area around the abbey became boggy and mosquito-borne malaria decimated the population. The apparent decline of monastic life began in the 13th century: in 1235 20, and in 1306 only 10 monks lived in the monastery. In 1336 the Pomposa Abbey is coming .
In the following centuries, the monastery was repeatedly subordinated to other abbeys, which transferred many art treasures and furnishings into their own walls. In 1492 Pomposa was attached to the Congregation of Santa Giustina (Padua) . In the 15th century, the majority of the monks moved to Ferrara, where Duke Ercole I d'Este had their own monastery built for them. In 1653 the abbey was abolished by Pope Innocent X , and in 1671 the last monks left the abbey. The abbey church was initially a parish church until, after the French Revolution, it was sold to a private person who used the monastery buildings for agricultural purposes. Between 1920 and 1930, the privately owned parts were expropriated and the monastery restored , giving the abbey its current appearance.
Pomposa was formally declared an exemten titular abbey in 1964, which has since lived on in the Diocese of Comacchio (-Pomposa) , which was united with the Archdiocese of Ferrara to form the Archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio in 1986 . The respective (arch) bishop today bears the title of Abbot of Pomposa.
History of architecture and art
The abbey is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture and one of the most important Romanesque building complexes in Northern Italy . The basilica (9th – 12th centuries), the monastery buildings (13th / 14th centuries ) and the campanile (1063) as well as frescoes from the 14th century are particularly noteworthy .
church
The church was built in the period from 751 at the earliest and 874 at the latest as a three-aisled basilica without a transept, modeled on some churches from neighboring Ravenna. Spolia was used in many places . In 1026 the church after extensive enhancements was re- consecrated . A short time later the vestibule was built.
The interior is divided into three naves by columns that are recognizably similar to models from Ravenna with finely crafted capitals . The floor mosaics , which come from different epochs (mostly from around 1150) and show geometric elements as well as plant and animal motifs, are particularly valuable .
In the apse there is a fresco from 1351 depicting Christ surrounded by angels , saints and Mary , attributed to Vitale da Bologna . On the walls below you can see the Evangelists , some doctors of the church and scenes from the life of St. Eustachius .
The upper side walls of the central nave are decorated throughout with frescoes from the 14th century Bolognese school . The upper parts show scenes from the Old and New Testaments and the lower parts from the Revelation of John .
The wall opposite the apse shows a complex depiction of the Last Judgment . However, the overall impression of the interior is greatly disturbed by the retaining walls, which (probably from the 18th century until 1858) close off the side aisles and the entrance hall. For reasons of stability, they were added later and obscure the spatial impression of a three-aisled basilica.
The vestibule deserves attention , not because of its architecture, but because of its design. The colored pattern is made from bricks in various shades of red to yellow. Eight terracotta bowls are walled in as a further decoration . The two round windows are outstanding. Its natural stone decoration is unique and shows oriental influences (the area around Ravenna belonged to Eastern Roman Byzantium until the 8th century , which also had a considerable influence on art).
lobby
Round windows on the outside of the vestibule
Terracotta bowls on the porch
View into the apse
Side wall
Bell tower
The 48 meter high bell tower rises next to the church. It was built in 1063 by the architect Deusdedit, who had his name immortalized on a plaque on the western wall. The tower has typical Lombard features. The windows become more numerous and wider towards the top. This gives the building a special lightness and strives upwards, which is underlined by the high, pointed round roof. In the walls of the tower, made of red and yellow stone, you can see rare ceramic bowls on which trees, fish, birds and flowers are depicted. Eighteen of these bowls probably come from Mediterranean countries such as Egypt , Tunisia or Sicily .
monastery
Unlike the church, the monastery buildings have been largely destroyed. A museum has been set up in the former dormitory of the abbey above the chapter house. Various finds that were discovered on the site are exhibited, as well as remains of restoration work that made a decisive contribution to the reconstruction of the complex structural history of the monastery complex and in particular of the church. The pieces include inscriptions, marble work, rare stucco work from the original decoration of the church, majolica , utensils and parts of older frescoes.
The chapter house lies in the background of the former cloister . It is adorned with frescoes from the 14th century depicting a crucifixion , the founder of the order Benedict and Saint Guido, abbot of Pomposa, as well as monochrome representations of prophets on the side walls.
The former refectory is located in a second wing of the building . On the opposite side (at the current entrance to the monastery complex) is the Palazzo della Ragione , where the jurisdiction over the fiefs was exercised. Since the building had no religious function from the start, it was separated from the actual monastery complex.
literature
- Mario Salmi: The Pomposa Abbey. Translated from the Italian by Hajo Jappe, Rome 1954.
- Teresa Mistrorigo: The Pomposa Abbey. Bologna 1961.
- Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Romanesque. Cologne 1996, pp. 78-79, ISBN 3-89508-213-9 .
- Carla di Francesco: The Abbey and Museum of Pomposa. Without place and year (Guide to Pomposa Abbey, published by the Museo Pomposiano).
- Stefanie Hauer: Renewal in the picture. The Benedictine Pomposa Abbey and its 14th century wall paintings. Wiesbaden 1998.
- Tamara Frömel, Karin Weseslindtner: The Pomposa Abbey. Vienna 2011, 15 pages, PDF at univie.ac.at, accessed on July 17, 2019.
Web links
- Homepage on beniculturali.it.
- Entry of the Exemten Abbey Pomposa on gcatholic.org .
- Entry of the Exemten Abbey Pomposa on Catholic-hierarchy.org .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Abbazia di Pomposa (PDF) on ferraraterraeacqua.it (German), accessed on July 17, 2019.
- ↑ Frömel / Weseslindtner 2011, p. 1.
Coordinates: 44 ° 49 ′ 56 ″ N , 12 ° 10 ′ 31 ″ E