The Abbey of San Michele della Chiusa was founded between 983 and 987. It was one of the most famous Benedictine abbeys in northern Italy and is among the largest Romanesque architectural complexes in Europe, located along the Micaelico path that leads from Mont St. Michel to San Michele del Gargano. Its current imposing construction, begun around a small three-nave church dedicated to the Archangel Michael, was built between the 11th and 14th centuries. Subject to a progressive decline, it saw the suppression of monastic life within its walls in 1622. The abbey, which was also used as a fortress, was damaged in 1691 by Catinat’s French troops. It was only in 1836 that the ancient monastery resumed its religious functions, with the arrival of the community of Rosminian fathers who still reside there today.
The Sacra di San Michele has unique artistic and architectural elements, such as the zodiac portal and the staircase of the dead (12th century) and, outside, the monks’ sepulchre, while the interior of the abbey church is embellished by Romanesque sculptures in the apse area and numerous frescoes from the 15th-16th centuries.
Shroud images. Fresco of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The painting, of large dimensions, is realized on a wall of the hall of the church of the Sacra di San Michele. The painter Secondo del Bosco di Poirino, perhaps helped by one of his pupils, used the space available to depict three different scenes, developing the story vertically. Starting from the top, one can read the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, the central scene depicts Mary sleeping, the lower scene represents the moment of Christ’s deposition in the tomb. It is in this scene that one can also see the Holy Shroud which, after the resurrection of Jesus, will become the Shroud in the Christian tradition. Here, too, the central subject is the Virgin Mary tenderly caressing the suffering face of her son for the last time before the tomb is closed with his mortal remains. The large fresco is striking for the vividness, still healthy and strong, of the colours used. All the faces express great pain and suffering. It is unusual to note that the faces of the three soldiers sitting at the foot of the tomb have been erased.
Mount Pirchirian
Mount Pirchiriano (962 metres above sea level), a sentinel of the Susa Valley, is famous for hosting, on its summit, one of the most famous abbeys in Europe, and a symbolic monument of Piedmont: the Sacra di San Michele. Following the construction of the monastery (born between 983 and 987 on a pre-existing hermitage site and developed between the 11th and 15th centuries), the name of the mountain was changed from Porcariano (mountain of the pigs) to Pirchiriano (mountain of the sacred fire).
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