Abbey of Viboldone

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The Abbey of Viboldone lies in the province of Milan in Northern Italy. It was founded in 1176 by the Humiliate, foremost a lay fraternity akin to the early Franciscans.

Abbey of Viboldone. To the left may be seen the old priory (palace)

The first reference to Viboldone is in a Milanese Annal (Annales Medieoanenses minores). This tells us that there is a building of a church about nine km. from Milan and close to the Via Emilia. This location facilitated trade and hospitality. However, the proximity to the monastery of Chiaravalle may have been just as important. This notice was made  the same year as Barbarossa was defeated by the Milanese at Legnano.

At the same time the Humiliate found a common house for both lay brothers and sisters at Brera, just inside the walls of Milan. The next 20 years saw the Humility being busy with acclaiming land and tithes. This went on until 1201, when the order was officially approved by the Pope.

The abbey was completed in 1348 by the Humiliati, who worked in the abbey producing wool cloths. cultivated the nearby fields with innovative techniques.

After the suppression of the Humiliati by Pope Pius V (1571), the abbey went to the Olivetan Benedictines, who were forced to leave the abbey in 1773, when Lombardy fell in Austrian hands.

After several years of abandonment, the abbey  in 1941 became home to the Community of Madre Margherita Marchi (Benedictine nuns).

Ancient door into the church in Viboldone

The façade (finished in 1348) is embellished with mullioned windows and visible brickwork with white stone decorations, and divided into three sectors by two semi-columns. The entrance portal is in white marble, and is surmounted by a lunette with marble sculptures of the “Madonna with Child between the Saints Ambrose and John of Meda”. At its sides, two Gothic niches houses statues of the Sts. Peter and Paul. The door is in dark wood, and dates to the 14th century.

The bell tower has an appearance similar to that of the façade, with frames in cotto and small arcades at the bases of the double and triple mullioned windows. The latter are surmounted by small circular windows.

The interior is rather sober, with few decorations, aside from the extensive fresco decoration of the Giottesque school. It has a rectangular hall plan, with a nave and two aisles with five spans each (the first ones in Romanesque style, while the remaining ones are Gothic with cotto columns and high cross vaults). The arches are ogival.

The fresco decoration includes the Madonna in Maestà with Saints and the large Last Judgement by Giusto di Giovanni de’ Menabuoi with, in the middle, Jesus and at his left the Damned, overlooked by Satan. Other frescoes, depicting Renaissance musical instruments, are housed in the Music Hall, located in a building annexed to the church.

Palazzo

Of special interest is the adjoining palazzo from the 13th century, now functioning as the guesthouse of the convent. It witnesses to the character of Humiliate centres, which typically consisted of a house with an adjoining chapel; here the house was more of a grandiose meeting hall, where the humiliate might convene while the chapel was a proper church.