Eagles on sculpted capital in cloister, built around 1242, at the Abbazia di Piona (Piona Abbey), Colico, Lombardy, Italy.
Abbazia di Piona (Piona Abbey), Colico, Lombardy, Italy: sculpted capital in cloister attached to the Chiesa di San Nicola (Church of St Nicholas). The cloister was built around 1242 in a style that ranges from Romanesque to Gothic. In all the cloister’s galleries there are sculpted eagles; they include eagles on four capitals (of which this is one) each with four eagles. The eagle was believed by in medieval times to be capable of looking directly at the sun and, when death was imminent, to take flight upwards. Thus, the bird represented the monk who, in the life of the cloister, incessantly contemplated the face of God. The eagle was also a symbol of Christ and his ascension to Heaven. 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: 2840px × 2840px
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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