Face of a tonsured saintly monk, large and out of proportion right hand raised. Detail from a damaged Temptation of St Benedict fresco, painted in the late 1200s, in the cloister at Abbazia di Piona (Piona Abbey), Colico, Lombardy, Italy.
Abbazia di Piona (Piona Abbey), Colico, Lombardy, Italy: detail of a late 13th century Temptation of Benedict fresco, inspired by the second book of the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great. In the cloister, built around 1242, attached to the Chiesa di San Nicola (Church of St Nicholas). St Benedict is believed to have been born around 480 as the son of a Roman noble of Norcia (Nursia) in Umbria. While living as a hermit, he was tempted by the devil. He subsequently founded a monastery at Monte Cassino that became the basis of the Church’s monastic system. Piona Abbey, beside Lake Como, is a former Benedictine monastic complex, once occupied by reformist French Cluniac monks, on the tip of the Olgiasca, a rocky peninsular extending from the eastern shore of the northern arm of the Lago di Como. The monks’ church, dedicated to St Nicholas, dates from the late 11th or early 12th century and replaced a ruined 7th century oratory sometime before 1138. The monastery fell into decline before its buildings and lands were seized and sold off in 1798. The church and cloister were partly restored in the early 20th century and in 1938, the monastery came back to life when the Cistercian monks of Casamari Abbey in Lazio took possession of it. The ancient complex is now open to visitors.
Size: 2746px × 2745px
Location: Abbazia di Piona, Piona Abbey, Colico, Lombardy, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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