Altitude 329 m (1,080 feet). 19,000 inhabitants
Elegant
residential area and resort town
The site
was already fortified in ancient times
Abbazia Greca di Grottaferrata
Greek Abbey of Grottaferrata
Also known
as Abbazia di S. Nilo (Abbey of St.
Nile)
1004 by St. Nilus the Younger (about 910/1004) who founded the
monastery on the ruins of a Roman villa and by St.
Bartholomew the Younger (about 980/about 1050), a disciple of St. Nilus
the Younger, who consecrated the church in 1024
The
Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere, future Pope Julius II (1503/13) abbot from 1472
until 1503, commissioned the construction of defensive walls designed by
Giuliano Giamberti aka Giuliano da Sangallo (1445/1516)
or Baccio Pontelli (about 1450/92)
The walls
enclose two areas: in the first area there are the Palace of the Abbey and the typography,
in the second there is the Basilica of St. Mary
COURTYARD
OF THE CASTLE
Portico
designed by Giuliano Giamberti aka Giuliano da Sangallo
Museum
of the Abbey
Established
in 1886
Medieval
objects and objects found during excavations in the area and materials
Frescoes
"Scenes from the life of Moses" of the thirteenth/fourteenth
centuries detached from the church
Palace
of the Commendatory Abbot
Hall of of
the vault painted in grotesque style and the frieze painted in 1547 by Francesco da Siena (active in Rome the first half of
the sixteenth century)
Library
About 40,000
modern volumes, 1,197 manuscripts, rare codes of the eleventh century, texts of
Byzantine music, "Cadamosto", a collection of journeys’ reports
printed in the sixteenth century
Since 1931
there is a laboratory for the restoration of texts
Basilica
of St. Mary
1024,
transformed in 1754 and restored from 1902 until 1930
BELL TOWER
and PORTAL of the twelfth century
Baptismal
font in the portico of the eleventh or of the twelfth century
"Porta speciosa" eleventh or twelfth
century with original wooden doors
"Rota porfiretica" of 2.45 m (8
feet) in diameter
Above the
door mosaic "Deesis" maybe
contemporary of the doors with "Christ, Our Lady, St. John the Baptist and
small monk (maybe St. Bartholomew or Hegumen
- equivalent Orthodox of abbot – who commissioned the work) in solemn
dress"
FLOOR
Cosmatesque
style of the twelfth or thirteenth century
TRIUMPHAL
ARCH
Mosaics and
frescoes of the twelfth or thirteenth century much restored: "Twelve
Apostles and Pentecost", "Trinity", "Angels" and
"Stories of Moses"
Machine for
the iconostasis made in 1665 by Antonio Giorgetti (known since 1660/d. 1669) a pupil
of Gian Lorenzo Bernini with "Byzantine Icon" (Theotokòs) of the early 1200s copy of the older Odighitria (true portrait of the Virgin Mary
painted by St. Luke ) venerated in Constantinople in the Monastery of the
Guides
CHAPEL ON
THE RIGHT
"Early
Christian Oratorio" with gratings, known as "Crypta ferrata" from
which perhaps derives the name of the city, Grottaferrata
On the
right FARNESIANA CHAPEL or CHAPEL OF St. NILUS THE YOUNGER rebuilt in 1608/10
for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese with altarpiece "Virgin Mary and Child with Sts.
Nilus and Bartholomew" by Annibale Carracci (1560/1609)
On the left "Life of St. Nilus the Younger":
"Miracle
of the Obsessed", "Meeting between St. Nilus and Emperor Otto
III" with portraits of Odoardo Farnese, Domenichino, Guido Reni and Giovanni
Francesco Barbieri, aka Guercino and "Miracle of the Crucifix"
On the right "Life of St. Bartholomew":
"The
Virgin Mary giving a golden apple to the founding saints", "Construction
of the Abbey and Miracle of the Column" with portrait of Annibale Carracci
and "Miracle of the Harvest"
In the upper part "Fathers of the Eastern Church
alternating with scenes from the Bible"
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