The monumental complex of the Church and Monastery of the Holy Sepulchre, an ancient Vallombrosan monastery founded in 1107, is located in the beautiful Astino Valley.
The church was consecrated a decade after the birth of the congregation, in 1117. A first expansion took place with the construction of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher (1500) and, from around 1540 until the end of the century, the church was restructured and redecorated thanks to cycles of frescoes executed by the painters Cristoforo Baschenis il Vecchio and Giovan Battista Guarinoni, works today partially recovered thanks to a recent restoration. In this period, new furnishings and structures were also created, such as the sacristy, the bell tower and the current deep presbytery, so that they would respond to the dictates of the Council of Trento.
The decorative updates and improvements continued during the seventeenth century and, in the early eighteenth century, the need to adapt to the late Baroque taste led to the commissioning of other frescoes, elaborate stuccos and canvases. Among the artists who worked in the church are Giuseppe Brina, Bernardo Sanz, Antonio Cifrondi and Andrea Pelli.
The decline of the Vallombrosan order began in the second half of the eighteenth century, culminating in the Napoleonic suppression in 1797. The building ceased to have religious functions and, in the years 1832-1892, was transformed into an asylum, becoming a subsidiary of the Maggiore Hospital of Bergamo. Subsequently it was a subsidiary church of the parish of Longuelo, but the sale of the church and the monastery to private individuals (1923) severely limited their public use, favouring their abandonment and degradation.
It wasn’t until 2007 that the complex began a process of rebirth: in that year, in fact, it was purchased by the Congregation of the Greater Mercy, which returned the former monastery of Astino and its church both to religious worship and to public use.
Architecturally speaking, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has a particular tau cross structure (plan with a single nave ending in the transept), modified by the addition of a deep choir during the Renaissance.
Inside you will find not one, but three altars: the main one, in a slightly elevated position, then the altar of San Martino and that of the Evangelists, both prior to 1140.
The monumental complex of the Church and Monastery of the Holy Sepulchre, an ancient Vallombrosan monastery founded in 1107, is located in the beautiful Astino Valley.
The church was consecrated a decade after the birth of the congregation, in 1117. A first expansion took place with the construction of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher (1500) and, from around 1540 until the end of the century, the church was restructured and redecorated thanks to cycles of frescoes executed by the painters Cristoforo Baschenis il Vecchio and Giovan Battista Guarinoni, works today partially recovered thanks to a recent restoration. In this period, new furnishings and structures were also created, such as the sacristy, the bell tower and the current deep presbytery, so that they would respond to the dictates of the Council of Trento.
The decorative updates and improvements continued during the seventeenth century and, in the early eighteenth century, the need to adapt to the late Baroque taste led to the commissioning of other frescoes, elaborate stuccos and canvases. Among the artists who worked in the church are Giuseppe Brina, Bernardo Sanz, Antonio Cifrondi and Andrea Pelli.
The decline of the Vallombrosan order began in the second half of the eighteenth century, culminating in the Napoleonic suppression in 1797. The building ceased to have religious functions and, in the years 1832-1892, was transformed into an asylum, becoming a subsidiary of the Maggiore Hospital of Bergamo. Subsequently it was a subsidiary church of the parish of Longuelo, but the sale of the church and the monastery to private individuals (1923) severely limited their public use, favouring their abandonment and degradation.
It wasn’t until 2007 that the complex began a process of rebirth: in that year, in fact, it was purchased by the Congregation of the Greater Mercy, which returned the former monastery of Astino and its church both to religious worship and to public use.
Architecturally speaking, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has a particular tau cross structure (plan with a single nave ending in the transept), modified by the addition of a deep choir during the Renaissance.
Inside you will find not one, but three altars: the main one, in a slightly elevated position, then the altar of San Martino and that of the Evangelists, both prior to 1140.
