Description
Praglia Abbey is a Benedictine monastery that is still very much alive, at the foot of the Euganean Hills, in the Paduan countryside between Teolo and Abano Terme. Behind its walls are a Renaissance basilica, four very different cloisters and a community of monks who restore old books.
The tour takes you through the four cloisters, each with its own character. The first is the botanical cloister, at the entrance, with alternating columns of red marble and white stone: plants were once grown here. On the north side, the door of charity recalls the abbey's calling to welcome guests.
The hanging cloister is the most curious: the courtyard rests on four pillars and is made of four sloping planes, designed to collect rainwater in a large cistern underneath. Around it are the main rooms: the church, the monumental refectory, the old library and the chapter house.
The double cloister, or cloister of the enclosure, has two storeys of identical arches. The rustic cloister, to the west, was the working yard instead, with a large threshing floor and the tools for farming the surrounding fields.
The Church of Santa Maria Assunta, a minor basilica since 1954, was designed by Tullio Lombardo at the end of the fifteenth century and later reworked by Andrea Moroni. The apse dates from around 1530 and is the work of Domenico Campagnola. The abbey is also home to a National Library.
The monastery was founded in 1080 by the Maltraverso family, under the name of Pratalia, meaning "meadows": for centuries it was the farming engine of the Paduan countryside. The complete rebuilding began in 1469.
Napoleon suppressed it in 1810, and the Praglia Polyptych by Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini ended up in the Pinacoteca di Brera. Reopened by the Austrians and closed again by Italy in 1867, it only returned to the Benedictines in 1904.
Today it is a centre of excellence in the restoration of old books, manuscripts and parchments. Antonio Fogazzaro set part of his novel Piccolo mondo moderno here. And they say the library ceiling is octagonal for the "eight days of God": six of work, the seventh of rest, the eighth of the resurrection.
The tour takes you through the four cloisters, each with its own character. The first is the botanical cloister, at the entrance, with alternating columns of red marble and white stone: plants were once grown here. On the north side, the door of charity recalls the abbey's calling to welcome guests.
The hanging cloister is the most curious: the courtyard rests on four pillars and is made of four sloping planes, designed to collect rainwater in a large cistern underneath. Around it are the main rooms: the church, the monumental refectory, the old library and the chapter house.
The double cloister, or cloister of the enclosure, has two storeys of identical arches. The rustic cloister, to the west, was the working yard instead, with a large threshing floor and the tools for farming the surrounding fields.
The Church of Santa Maria Assunta, a minor basilica since 1954, was designed by Tullio Lombardo at the end of the fifteenth century and later reworked by Andrea Moroni. The apse dates from around 1530 and is the work of Domenico Campagnola. The abbey is also home to a National Library.
The monastery was founded in 1080 by the Maltraverso family, under the name of Pratalia, meaning "meadows": for centuries it was the farming engine of the Paduan countryside. The complete rebuilding began in 1469.
Napoleon suppressed it in 1810, and the Praglia Polyptych by Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini ended up in the Pinacoteca di Brera. Reopened by the Austrians and closed again by Italy in 1867, it only returned to the Benedictines in 1904.
Today it is a centre of excellence in the restoration of old books, manuscripts and parchments. Antonio Fogazzaro set part of his novel Piccolo mondo moderno here. And they say the library ceiling is octagonal for the "eight days of God": six of work, the seventh of rest, the eighth of the resurrection.