SAccording to the legendary tradition, the Abbey would have been erected at the behest of Charlemagne, but there are no documents confirming this news. The emperor would have founded it in 781, returning from Rome, along the Via Francigena. It was originally a powerful Benedictine abbey, so much so that in medieval times the abbot was one of the major feudal lords of the Sienese territory exercising authority over 38 churches scattered throughout Tuscany from Pistoia to Grosseto. In 1291 it passed to the Guglielmites at the behest of Pope Niccolò V and in 1462 it was suppressed by Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Pius II, annexing it to Montalcino, which was elevated to a diocese thanks to the incorporation of the Abbey itself.
Of Romanesque style, the first documents date back as a Benedictine foundation to 762. The church was then erected and consecrated under the Abbot Longobardo Winizzo on November 13, 1035. With the bubble of Gregory IX of April 17, 1228 it passed to the order of the Cistercians. This Abbey had the moment of greatest splendor from the 10th to the 12th century or during the period of greatest use of the underlying Via Francigena which passed over the valley floor of the Valdorcia. It was a real fiefdom with large expanses of land on both sides of the Amiata. It was closed in 1793 and reopened for worship in 1939. Do not miss the Lombard crypt of Duke Ratchis
The residence of the mountain of fire- The figure and teaching of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu inspired the birth of the International Dzogchen Community whose European headquarters, Merigar, in Italy, was founded in 1981. The purpose of the settlement is to safeguard the thousand-year-old Tibetan culture. Here, every year, Thousands of people of all nationalities come together to participate in conferences and seminars on Tibetan religion and medicine.
Always a borderland, the Amiata is still today a crossroads and home to different religions that have left traces of their passage. the mystical place par excellence is the area of Monte Labbro, reign in the second half of the 19th century of the Messiah of Amiata, David Lazzaretti who sculpted with his followers who had hoped for a spiritual and social renewal, a tower on the coma of the mountain, with a church and a hermitage, recently restored. It was chosen by Davide Lazzaretti as the seat of the jurisdictional community he founded. From here you can enjoy a magnificent view of the surrounding valleys. In the Aldobrandesco castle of Arcidosso a section dedicated to him has been created to demonstrate that his ideals of peace and equality still survive today.
The Monastery of the Incarnation of the Siloe community. In the Old Testament Siloe was a swimming pool near Jerusalem, considered sacred, with whose waters Jesus healed a blind man: the farm donated to the monks, on which the monastery complex stands, was called "Piscine" due to the presence of a spring! Hence the idea of naming the new Cistercian monastery in Siloe, built in 2001 by the will of six monks, confident in their neighbor and in the power of prayer, and thanks to the generosity of those who are constantly offering their work for the completion of the monastery. The project is by an architect from Bergamo, Edoardo Milesi, expert in environmental protection, specialized in bioarchitecture, as well as winner in 2006 of the Legambiente Award for Renewable Energy. Analyzing the characteristics and immersing yourself in the meaning of medieval architecture, Milesi designed a complex in compliance with the traditions of the ancient Benedictine rule, albeit aesthetically renewed
The wrought iron cross, a recognizable symbol of the mountain, was built to commemorate the Holy Year of 1900, following the will of Pope Leo XIII who wanted Crosses to be erected on the highest peaks in Italy. On clear days, from the cross you can see the Ligurian mountains, the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and the mountain ranges of the Marche and Puglia and those of Corsica. Destroyed by the Germans in 1944, it was erected for the second time in 1946 and illuminated on August 26 with ten thousand bulbs from the same hand as Pope Pius XII, who lit the Cross from Rome.
