The San Benedetto Monastery complex, which includes the monastery and the church, is located just below the Venetian walls, in what was once the village of Santo Stefano, is today Via S. Alessandro.
Its origins have no certain date but it is known that the local Benedictine communities of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Maria in Valmarina, decimated in the XIII century by plagues and famines, united to survive and towards the end of 1493 they officially settled in Borgo Santo Stefano.
Over the centuries the new community grew and it was necessary to expand the spaces with the construction of a new church, which, after various interventions and renovations, is today an authentic jewel of sixteenth-century Lombard architecture.
San Benedetto cloister
Along Via S. Alessandro opens the porticoed cloister of San Benedetto, which presents itself as an elegant entrance to the Monastery. Made by Pietro Isabello, it has a rectangular plan on six round arches, supported on three sides by sandstone columns. In the twelve lunettes, many sixteenth-century frescoes by Cristoforo Baschenis stand out, including Il Giovane, retracing the life of San Benedetto.
The cloister constitutes the passage between the exterior of the structure and the large monastic complex, which also has direct access to the church.
The church
The church still retains its sixteenth-century character and has a main facade and a side tripartite by pilasters; in the centre of the main façade stands an architraved portal, surmounted by a small tympanum. The building has a central plan and a dome enclosed in an octagonal lantern.
Inside, the cloistered nuns have the opportunity to follow mass from the top of the choir, enclosed by a wooden barrier and placed above the elegant portico.
In the presbytery, several noteworthy works of art are conserved, such as a Madonna with Child and the altarpiece with The Miracle of the water gushing from the ark of the saints Fermo, Rustico and Procolo, both by Cavagna. Once inside, it is absolutely worth looking up and admiring the frescoed dome, which presents scenes from Benedictine life.
The San Benedetto Monastery complex, which includes the monastery and the church, is located just below the Venetian walls, in what was once the village of Santo Stefano, is today Via S. Alessandro.
Its origins have no certain date but it is known that the local Benedictine communities of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Maria in Valmarina, decimated in the XIII century by plagues and famines, united to survive and towards the end of 1493 they officially settled in Borgo Santo Stefano.
Over the centuries the new community grew and it was necessary to expand the spaces with the construction of a new church, which, after various interventions and renovations, is today an authentic jewel of sixteenth-century Lombard architecture.
San Benedetto cloister
Along Via S. Alessandro opens the porticoed cloister of San Benedetto, which presents itself as an elegant entrance to the Monastery. Made by Pietro Isabello, it has a rectangular plan on six round arches, supported on three sides by sandstone columns. In the twelve lunettes, many sixteenth-century frescoes by Cristoforo Baschenis stand out, including Il Giovane, retracing the life of San Benedetto.
The cloister constitutes the passage between the exterior of the structure and the large monastic complex, which also has direct access to the church.
The church
The church still retains its sixteenth-century character and has a main facade and a side tripartite by pilasters; in the centre of the main façade stands an architraved portal, surmounted by a small tympanum. The building has a central plan and a dome enclosed in an octagonal lantern.
Inside, the cloistered nuns have the opportunity to follow mass from the top of the choir, enclosed by a wooden barrier and placed above the elegant portico.
In the presbytery, several noteworthy works of art are conserved, such as a Madonna with Child and the altarpiece with The Miracle of the water gushing from the ark of the saints Fermo, Rustico and Procolo, both by Cavagna. Once inside, it is absolutely worth looking up and admiring the frescoed dome, which presents scenes from Benedictine life.
