The Cloister of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter in Savigliano
The Abbey of Saint Peter’s and its cloister is one of the most important religious complexes in Savigliano and the surrounding area for a number of reasons. Oral tradition and legend place its founding around the year 585 upon the return of Saint Faustus of France, which was in full observance of the Rule composed by Saint Benedict and meant to offer a route of conversion to its disciples.
Saint Benedict did not make any precise prescriptions as to the architecture however. Construction of the monasteries was the free prerogative of the abbots, who were bound by an unwritten rule and were subject to a periodic rotation from one abbey to another; a custom that permitted the exchange of knowledge and which gave new spiritual and cultural lymph to the Communities.
The value the Cloister has to the entire monastic fabric is not only functional, but also symbolic and liturgical; the fulcrum of the abbey organization. The extremely simple 16th c. arrangement of the abbey is based on the proportional elegance of the architecture. It can be appreciated to the fullest in the regular sequence of the central arches separating the colonnades on the ground floor, with their cross vaults on slender Tuscan order marble columns raised on block pedestals.
The current project to restore the garden follows the same pattern: the main paths are laid out with the well at the centre of the Greek cross inscribed in a square along the edge of the portico. Thick, well-trimmed hedges of Buxus sempervirens outline the regular, simple arrangement of the flowerbeds that are set against a backdrop of blossoming scented Violets in the border plantings and "Six Hills Giant" Nepeta in the central beds.
Freely immersing yourself for a few hours in this voluntary seclusion, perhaps to read pages of a book that whispers contemplative words to our sensibilities, shifting your gaze from the written pages to the rose bushes, the pomegranates, the lilies and the irises, means watching something that belongs to our incorporeal spirit flow from the fountains of the departed monks.
Indirizzo: Piazza Molineris , Savigliano (Cuneo)
Recapiti: tel. 0172/710247 (Ufficio Turistico)
Proprietà: Comune di Savigliano
Orari di apertura al pubblico: in fase di restauro. Orari in corso di definizione.
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