Chiaravalle One Day from Milan

By Enrico Massetti

This guide covers a short one-day or even half-day trip you can make from Milan to the Chiaravalle Abbey.
It includes a detailed description of the Abbey's history, the agricultural land surrounding it, and the monks who built it over the centuries.
It also has a detailed description of the unique agriculture in the area of the Po Valley, where the Abbey is located.
There are extensive descriptions and photos of the Abbey and its unique environment.
There is information on where you can rest for a snack or lunch inside the Abbey; the three restaurants nearby are listed.
There is also information on Abbey's opening days and times and detailed information on reaching the Abbey from Milan with public transportation, a bicycle, or your car.
A list of places where you can rent a bicycle for one day or longer is included at the end of the guide.
The book includes a History of the Cistercensians monks.
The digital e-guide is ideal for use on your smartphone or your tablet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Enrico Massetti
• Release date: Aug 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005978730

Enrico Massetti

Enrico Massetti nació en Milán, Italia, donde vivió durante más de 30 años, visitando innumerables destinos turísticos, desde las montañas de los Alpes hasta el mar de Sicilia. Ahora vive en Washington, Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, visita regularmente su ciudad natal y disfruta recorriendo todos los lugares de su país, especialmente aquellos a los que puede llegar en transporte público. Puede contactar con Enrico en [e-mail].

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Enrico Massetti

Chiaravalle - One Day from Milan

Enrico Massetti

Text Copyright © Enrico Massetti 2015-2021

Portion of the text translated from Wikipedia.org, Italian, CC4.0 license

Images ©, or CC Creative Commons license, as specified for each image

Cover image © Enrico Massetti, Adobe inc.

Images ©, or CC Creative Commons license, as specified for each image

Cover image © Enrico Massetti, Adobe inc.

Published by Enrico Massetti

All Rights Reserved

2022 edition

ISBN 978-1-716-00799-6

prepared for my friend Anne

for her first quick visit to Milan

One day trip to Chiaravalle Abbey

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Chiaravalle Cloister

This itinerary can be done quickly in half a day, as the Abbey is close to Milan and can be reached with frequent public transportation by bus.

An oasis of peace where the monks of the last one thousand years together with the art and the surrounding countryside combine to make the area incredibly rich in color and full of farming activity.

We are talking about the Chiaravalle Abbey, the dominion of the Cistercians from the year 1135, the year San Bernardo founded his first Church together with a small group of French monks.

The climate is anything but friendly due to the humid heat, but the area became a theatre of intense and patient work that transformed the marshland into cultivated fields. To this day, work and prayer dictate the monk's daily activities, diligent observers of the Benedictine philosophy ora et labora (i.e., pray and work).

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Chiaravalle Abbey - Yoruno CC BY-SA 3.0

History of the Abbey

Chiaravalle Abbey (in Latin, Sanctæ Mariæ Clarævallis Mediolanensis, also known as Santa Maria di Roveniano) is a Cistercian monastic complex located in the Parco agricolo Sud Milano, between the Vigentino and Rogoredo districts. Founded in the twelfth century by St. Bernard of Clairvaux as a branch of the Abbey of Clairvaux, an agricultural village developed around it, annexed to the municipality of Milan in 1923.

The Church is one of the first examples of Gothic architecture in Italy. Thanks to the land reclamation and hydraulic works of the monks who lived there, it was fundamental for the economic development of the lower Milanese area in the centuries following its foundation.

San Bernardo banned decoration or otherwise, considering it to be useless and mundane, and at the same time, a dangerous distraction from his devotion to contemplation and poverty.

However, this did not last long, and from the second half of the third century, work was underway by various noted artists.

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Chiaravalle Abbey Adobe Inc.

Even Abbey's architecture is characterized by the essential and simple rhythms of the monk's lives, a model which gave birth to Citeaux – the founding place of the Cistercian monks who can now be found throughout Italy and the rest of Europe.

The Cloister is a fundamental part of the Abbey. Around it, the Church, the chapter house, and the refectory are built.

Minimal remains of the original convent are left. Still, the rows of arches, the contrast between the plasterwork and terracotta, and the green in the middle give a medieval atmosphere.

A stone tablet is built into the wall in the northeast corner. It is inscribed with a stork. It represents how the land was transformed from being infertile to fertile and consecrated to the Church.

The massive cylindrical pillars are without a base or a capital at either end and support the cross vaults and provide stability, while the light makes the structure seem more unified and lighter.

The interior is based on the traditional Latin cross-shape and comprises an extensive series of squares.

From the foundation to the 17th century

On October 10, 1134, the first Cistercian monks from Moiremont, near Dijon, arrived in Lombardy and settled in Coronate near Pieve di Abbiategrasso. Another group of Cistercians from Clairvaux arrived in Milan at the beginning of 1135 as guests of the Benedictines of Saint Ambrose, supporting Pope Innocent II in the dispute against the anti-pope Anacletus II, who was then pitting the rest of Lombardy against the city of Milan.

Bernard of Clairvaux, who