29 juillet 2007
Sacra di San Michele, history
The
Pirchiriano mount, on the slope of which is Sacra it di san Michele,
dominates with 962m, and is drawn up in the valley of Suse, not far
from Turin. The valley was formed in the time of the ice ages and was
planed by the power of the ices, as the hard stone cupolas and the
polished surface of the escarpments prove it. Thus was formed the
“Chiusa”, the cluse, of Latin confined, bolt in a narrow throat.
The
old name of Pirchiriano seems to be the elegant form of the modest
porcarianus, the mount of the pigs, by analogy with its neighbors, the
caprasio, the mount of the goat, and Musiné, the mount of the asses.
These names have a bond with the religion of the Celts, and there we
find our druids, whose emblem was the wild boar. It is not astonishing
if this mountain accepted a sanctuary.
The
first known inhabitants were the Neolithic stockbreeders of Vaie and
Villarforchiardo, then the inhabitants of the villages near the lake of Trana
and Avigliana.
Strengthened
as the time of the Ligurians, then by the Celts, the mount became
the stronghold of two kings Cozius, of which the first was a friend of
César Auguste. On arrival of the Romans, in 63, those placed the place
under the protection of an alpine divinity which we finds the traces
on fragments of marble stele.
In 461, the inhabitants were invaded by Burgondes, then in 477 the valley passes under the bizantine authority.
Lombards
invaded it from 569 to 773, them which, the first, build fortifications.
Charlemagne imposes its domination then. The Carolingians Buckwheats
succeed, towards 888. They remained little of time. In 933, the valley
is joined together with the kingdom of Burgundy, and in 942, the king
of Italy, Hugues of Provence, indicates Arduin Glabrion as count of
Turin. This one had received in reward the Walk of the valley of Suse
to have demolishes Buckwheats.
One
day, passes a noble lord of Auvergne, Hugues de Paillers-Montboissier
says Unstitched, who goes to Rome to expiate his faults; whereas it
assembles the steps of the Saint-Pierre basilica, it feels stopped,
retained behind. The pope commits it to see a divine sign there and
gives him the order to build a monastery to erase its sins.
Returning
in Gaule by the valley of Suse, Hugues made there halt by friends, who,
put at the current of his intention, speak to him about the oratory of
the Michaelmas. A visit in the place, accompanied by a new miracle,
decides our Auvergnat man to concretize on Pirchiriano its penitence. He wzent to see, in Avigliana, the marquis Arduin d' Ivrée and
buy to him the place, in order to make its foundation completely independent of
the local temporal power; he obtains also a privilege of the bishop of
Turin for the future monks. It is certain Advert, abbot of Lézat, party
of its monastery where the indiscipline reigned, which becomes the
first chief of the monastic community of the Cluse. Some time later,
Hugues, who was turned over to Auvergne (or his son), returns to
Piedmont to complete his foundation and to request the confirmative
diplomas to the pope (Sylvestre II) and from the emperor (Otton the
Young).
In
second half of Xth century, a certain Jean “Vincent”, ex-bishop of the
area of Ravenne, wanting to turn over to the solitary life, leaves its
episcopal quotes and fixes himself on Assembles Caprasio, with the
collar of That, face has the antique place of worship of Assembles
Pirchiriano. One night, holy Michel appears to him and orders to him to
rebuild an oratory on Pirchiriano. Jean achieves the wish of the
archangel, not without to have been made help miraculously by doves
devoted to the task. The oratory where the hermit elects from
now on residence, on its request, is devoted by the bishop of Turin,
after a second miracle to convince this one. It becomes a attended
place of pilgrimage.
In XIIIth century, the abbey counted more than 100 Benedictines and directed 140 monasteries. In XIVth century, it had many grounds and begin a period of great power. Then the decline came, with its last two abbots and the setting under commende.
Since 1836, the Rosminiens fathers, called by the family of Savoy, maintain a spiritual life at the top of the mount and accomodate the faithful ones come to request the Archangel.
If you want another version of the history, more… funny, go on http://patsand.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/10/index.html
It is said that Umberto Eco took as a starting point this site for his famous novel “the name of the pink”.
The worship of Saint Michael
Diffused
quickly in Italy since the East, especially in the high and solitary
places, the worship was established in Vth and VIth centuries by
exiled Persans monks of their fatherland, sent by Rome to
évangelize the North of Italy. The presence of these monks is still
attested today by the dedication of a small vault with Saint Abacus,
one of their, by the Musiné Mount.
The Byzantines
developed the worship. Lombards celebrated it, them which had like
guards Saint Michael, Saint Pierre and Saint Ambroise.
Lenient
Rebora, one of the best representatives of the Religious Poetry of Xth
century, defines the Abbey of Saint Michel like a “vertiginously sacred top”.
The
Abbey is closely related to the figure of Saint Michael , considered as the
prince of the celestial militia and as the right arm of the divinity.
The chronicler of the Abbey proposed already this particular
description of Saint Michael when he wrote, in the half of the eleventh
century, the following worms: “Thanks to several documents of the Holy
Scriptures, we know now that not only the Happy Michael has, thanks to
the will of God, the supremacy of the celestial militia, but it also
has, so to speak, a principality on the ground, which is, more exactly,
in the Western regions.
the
Archangel chose himself between all three particular places in these
Western areas of the world, to visit them, and to flood
them his light: the first with the Gargan mount, already very known of
the whole world; the second close to the ocean, which one calls "
the danger of the sea”; the third placed very exactly halfway, it is
the Pirchirianus mount, in the middle of the high mountains, where it
is possible to contemplate the divine majesty more closely”.
Foundations and the first constructions of the abbey
Between
983 and 987, shortly after the expulsion of Buckwheats, two oratories
were rebuilt, according to a clunisian chronicler. It is at the end of
Xth century that the third vault was built, vaster than the two
others, by the hermit Jean Vincent. It even leaned with the rock, it,
according to this chronicler, was sacred by the angels, from where the
name of Sacred indicating the whole of constructions.
A
little later the community of Benedictines monks directed by the
abbot Advertus, called upon an architect, perhaps Guillaume de
Volpiano, to conceive a majestic plan for the fourth church, in the
top of three exists.
Between 1015 and 1035, the summit of
Pirchiriano is included in the structure of this new church, said of
Hugues, of which there remains the Western part, called old chorus.
The
new church quickly proves too short. The number of monks, the fame of
the monastery, claimed a chorus of vast proportions. (The Abbey is in
the middle of the course which went from the Holy Mount Michel in
Gargano, the destination of a considerable number of frequent visits
and high row.)
The idea of such a construction be probably allocated
to the abbot Ermenegaldus who directed the abbey from 1099 to
1130. It was a question of drawing up an enormous base which, being
pressed on the last peak of the mount, would join the top, on the level
of which could rise the fifth church.
This
was done by a sculpture and architecture master, Nicholaus,
which thereafter will work in the cathedrals of Pleasure and Ferrare
like in the church of San Zeno in Vérone. It is him which carried out
the famous door of the zodiac, in top of “the staircase of deaths”,
which counts among carved works most beautiful and the most refined
first half of the twelfth century.
The fresco of the two legends
It
is currently placed on the Northern wall of the old chorus, inside the
basilica. It summarizes the legendary history of the foundation of the
sanctuary. Eight episodes are represented:
- Saint Jean Vincent
cutting the beams for the construction of a vault dedicated to Saint
Michael on the Caprasio mount (high right-hand side)
- Angels and doves transport the beams of Caprasio in Pirchiriano (high center)
- An angel draws Jean Vincent out of a cave and Pirchiriano shows him (high right-hand side)
- The angel leads Jean Vincent in direction of Sacra (center)
it monastery already built surrounded by 3 flames symbolizing the appearance angelica (high left)
it sepulchre near the monastery (left)
-
The bishop of Turin Amizzone goes up to Sacra to devote the vault and
discovers that was already miraculously made (low right)
The count Hugues leaves Suse for the Sacra in company of his wife Isengarde and a small court (low left)
The arrival to the Sacra di San Michele
This
“wonder” is seen by far, and there is this furtive impression which one
will touch it soon. Furtive certainly, because it is necessary, as with
the Michaelmas Mount (the danger of the sea), to make a good walk
before finding the entry.
As
usual in a high-place, we needs a physical exercise making it possible
to empty itself before filling again. Received energy, the vision of
the mount and the valley downwards, are already a reward.
The access path is well in the magic tradition. Several doors of life are presented, as well as a first guard.
The
passage is borrowed, but hardly released. Its entry on the other hand
is well hidden. It is necessary to show white leg, Mister guard is not
convenient. But it does its work well.
Once
entered on the way, a second guard points the end of his nose. Further,
a “station” under a stone makes me think of the holes dug in the rock
along the staircase going up to the vault the Michaelmas d' Aiguilhe in
Le Puy.
The
true way, higher than the concrete road reserved to the tourists being
unaware of the virtues of energies, curves on the peak of the passage.
A true back of dragon.
I did not count the number of doors precisely, guarantee that they are 12. 
A stone makes me think of the rock of Merlin in the solid mass of Pilat…
Several
stones present cups. I do not know their significance, (I rather do not
think that it were used to manufacture water lustrale, a sign, or a
trace of old barrier), but since the place was crowned well before the
construction of the building of Xth century, they represent the traces
of recognition by the old ones of the energy released at the top of the
mountain.
Us here are ready for the meeting with the sanctuary…
Meeting the sanctuary
The sepulchre of the monks
The
first meeting, and not of least, is done with the ruins of a small
Romane church of centered plan, whose the absidioles are still
visible. Its construction goes back to the years 1000.
The
remainders as well as the heap of stones of the ploughed up part
suggest a building of octagonal form, formed of 4 rectangular vaults
grafted at the ends of a Greek cross, connected between them by four
circular niches. We can reconnize the “baptistry” type .
It
is called around sepulchre bus extended the cemetery from the monks.
The church was used as funeral vault. However, it is as possible as
this octagonal form is inspired by the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
A
tradition wants that it is built on an old pagan temple (but almost as
patsand would say.), where the ditch opened which blocked the entry of
the castrum.
Destroyed
partly in 1661 “thanks” in the Spanish bombardments, it was dedicated
to Saint Etienne. The ruins were restored by the historic buildings.
The entry of the sanctuary
The frontage
This
is the most imposing and most monumental part of the Abbey. The
frontage, massive, is 41 meters height. The base is 26
meters height and supports the structure of the church.
On September 24, 2005,
the statue of Saint Michael Archange realized by the artist Paul De
Doss-Moroder was placed close to the slope of the external staircases.
The
monumental complex is characterized by a particular geometrical
combination and effects of colors between the straight lines of gray iron
embasement and the curved lines of the church, with its
central apse and its gallery. 
The
Benedictines monks began work for the realization of embasement in
first half of XIIth century, to build there, above, the large church
made up of five apses.
The porch of entry presents two animals to us, being held by the tail. (telluric energy going up in volutes?)
On the other
side, beautiful dischargers, sign that energies can escape without
accumulating(It would be dangerous for the building…)
The gallery of the arcades
In top, this gallery counts among the most exceptional apsidal galleries of Roman art in Italy. It is located at the highest site.
A
crown of arcades (called Italian viretti) rests on 16 posts,
enriched by capitals, all differents in their ornamentation. The cornice
dominates the threshold of access for 41 meters.
The large staircase
Inside
the base, an immense staircase, called staircase of deaths.
Uneven 20 meters separates the departure from the staircase of the
level of the church and its pavement, which makes it particularly
stiff.
Where
the first steps are assembled, on the left side, a pillar wich is 18 meters hight.
Its large arcs which take support on him support the chorus of the
church.
Northern
side, two occulus. That of North is shifted compared to the
window of the lower part. My opinion is that the architect knew very
well what it did…
On
the pillar, engraved at the base of the arcs, an ouroboros, inside, a
character. A foot inside, a foot outside. A hand inside, a hand
outside… Signs of control?
Along
the rock faces, at regular interval, oppening niches, until 1937, with
the burials of abbots and benefactors of the monastery. From where
its name of staircase of deaths.
I
will go even further. If you know the
fabric of Jerome Bosch representing a tunnel, with the light in the
end and the angels accompanying the hearts, you will have an idea of
what one feels by beginning the rise.
The door of the zodiac
The
staircase of dead opens with the light. It is necessary to
pass in front of the door of the zodiac. Perhaps the amounts of marble
which decorate it come from Saint-Etienne, the vault, known as the
sepulchre of the monks. It seems that they are not on their site
of origin. Their symbolic system can be changed.
The door and a good part of its decoration is the work of master Nicholaus, the architect of the part of XIIth century of the Sacra. On one of the pilasters, he signed its name: “Vos qui transitis sursum vel forte reditis, vos legite versus quo descripsit Nicolaus”, i.e. “you who go up or perhaps go down, yes, you, read these worms written by Nicolas”.
Capitals of right-hand side
They
represent subjects, drawn from the bible. We find episodes of
the life of Samson, one represents him shaking the columns of
the temple of the Philistines. 
Then we have the murder of Abel, and three men in a brawl seizing themselves by the hair. But what is the message? Hair is quite present…
The
Latin inscription gives a beginning of explanation: “This place is a
place of peace, leave side any source of quarrel.” But if one goes
further, perhaps the sculptor makes us it's reflect on the symbolic
system of hairs, and by there their function to collect energies.
And if it is looked at still better, one can imagine that the man (and
women) do not fight, but they have the feet posed well on the
ground, (symbolized by the pad at the base of the capital), that their
legs make a reversal, and that they do not draw the hair at all, but by
a skilful interlacing of their hands holding hair of the neighbor,
wicks being turned towards the sky, they recover the cosmic forces… And for this, one needs maitriser the emotional one, therefore to leave
side the quarrels. Moreover, we have the man and the women
turned towards the interior. Polarities?
But good, that it is not necessary to say appears, it is not marked in the schoolbooks.
The
amount of right-hand side shows us the signs of the zodiac, which,
curiously, are 11. Indeed, we find in the same circle the balance and
the scorpion… On the basis of pillar, the lion. In top, the symbol of
the verb…
Capitals of left
They are 6.
We
have a splendid representation of sirens. In the center, a triton, with
its abundant hair (still) whose left side is braided. The radiant hair
shows that it is water carrier of the sky, fire. In this case, the
eagles are not far.
Indeed,
we find them on the close capital, the legs posed on a circle with the
top of the ground, the wings turned towards the ground. Only that,
the medium has the wings turned towards the sky, and the legs are not
visible any more… Cosmic and telluric energies.
Its loincloth has 7 folds (symbol of the 7) and it holds in its hands its tail bifide which goes up towards the sky.
The
siren can also be androgyne, half man half woman. She becomes the
symbol of the achievement of the opposites. We thus knew the side a
beautiful female, recognizable siren with its bent hair. its loincloth
has nothing any more but 3 folds…
We
find the lion with head of dragon… Its bent tail passing between its
legs, as on the capital of the porch of entry. We find the
representation of constellations other than those of the known zodiac.
Hold, scratch inserting their nozzles in a head of man…
The
last capital represents women nursing the snakes, or rather
amphisbenes, of the Greek lecture theaters, on the two sides, and
bainein, to go… In bottom, their heads bite the small toe of the
ladies. Our snakes, therefore energy of the vouivre, which goes on the two
sides at the same time, is connected to cosmic and the telluric one.
Term of the search, maitrise supplements energies.
The church
After
having passed the door of the zodiac, we arrive in the last staircases
leading to the porch of the church. The buttresses are from XIXth century,
but there remain some original steps which turned behind the apses when
the staircase of dead did not exist.
The gate
It
was built by the architects of Hugues de Montboissier at the beginning
of XIIth century. Realized out of green and gray stone, made up of
several arcs, edges and cords, it is supported by a series of
semi-columns characterized by floral capitals.
In
top, the archivolt forming the drip is finished by a head
of monk. Other side existed the head of a young monk to the hair cut in
crown. Janus?
The
posts, on both sides of the gate, surmounted trefoil Gothic arches, are
a posterior addition. they are the remainders of a gantry which
protected the gate. The two leaves were carried out in 1826. In top on
the left, one distinguishes the Roman stele of Ist century
which carries the dedication to the alpine divinity.
Interior of the church
Large
and solemn, in spite of its modest dimensions, (22 meters since the
entry of the old chorus to the apse), the abbey counts three naves
of reduced size separated by pillars, whose vaults
intersecting ribs express a perfect fusion between Roman and
Gothic art. More than half of surface of the church rests on a single, large, very
high stone pillar which is in the center of the lower base, in the
staircase of deaths.
The
church of Hugues de Montboissier occupied in length a little more half
of the principal nave, and arrived with its apses to the two round
pillars.
One
of the pillars is posed directly on the rock, and it releases an
incredible energy from it. Fortunately that one finds beautiful dischargers on the capitals. One counts 139 pillars in all the church.
The symbolic system is rich.
The
large bay of the apse shows a carved decoration of the school of
Pleasure and comprises 6 statues, placed the ones with the top of the
others, in the framing. The prophets are present, Isaïe, Jérémie,
Daniel and Ezéchiel. They are due to the hand a shelf on which are
engraved the promises of the old will.
In the top of the pilasters, it is possible to admire the four corresponding
evangelists and their symbols (from right to left: Mathieu, Marc, Luc, Jean).
The
lower part is occupied by the scene of the Annunciation, with Gabriel
archangel and Marie: it is, in this case, the face and the capacity of
Marie which deserve a detailed attention and which cause a deep
admiration for spirituality and mystical softness that they express. It
is the only one who isn't degraded by time.
Marie,
parèdre of Michel, is present in all the church, and especially
on the fresco of Secondo del Bosco da Poirino. She occupies all the
wall at the bottom of the collateral South. One finds here the fresco
of the legend, studied higher.
In
the apse of right-hand side, an old furnace bridge which one says that
it would be built by the juxtaposition of a pagan furnace bridge and a
Christian table resting on 4 colonettes. A tradition allots it to Saint
Jean Vincent.
The gate of the monks
To
the bottom of collateral North, it led formerly to the claustral
buildings. Today, it gives access to a terrace from where the valley
and the ruins of the monastery are dominated. It is divided by a
pilaster, decorated at the origin of two posts of angle. The tympanum
comprises two trefoil arcades. Two other pilasters constitute splayings
of this gate, which presents similarities with the gate of entry in the
church.
The
archivolt ends with a head of a man. Some can said to you that he is a buffoon or a devil. But what
does he want to say to us?
The primitive sanctuary
Located
under the pavement of the basilica, one reaches it since the central
nave. It is composed of three juxtaposed vaults which make it possible
to follow the progressive evolution of the oratory of the Roman castrum
become sanctuary of the archangel.
The
last vault, in North, smallest, on the ground of solid rock, makes
think of a construction of the 5th century. The vault of the medium,
fuller and worked out, would be the addition carried out by the first
monks. Vastest with a beautiful apse and walls of rock, is allotted to
Saint Jean Vincent. It is it which would have been devoted by the
angels, and remains the worthiest place of Sacra.
The eremitic cell
It is a small part discovered in 1987 in the top of the floor of
the corridor which traverses the stage under “the old chorus”.
It is
a narrow space of 2 meters approximately of dimensions. At the
time of its discovery, it was encumbered. Once released, one
found two invaluable silver moneys struck by the bishops of Le Puy (Xth century) and by the vicomptes of Limoges (end of Xth century, XIth
beginning). This discovery made it possible, partly, to date found
space and also to indicate the use as probable boxroom of it, before it
was forgotten. There are other assumptions on the use of this épace:
that it could be the cell of the hermit Jean Vincent or a eremitic cell
used by the monks to withdraw themselves and request in loneliness,
with calms, but close to the community.
Its solid material
position and its construction as bring to think as the small part was
to belong to the first abbey church before being reduced to a warehouse.
Towards the monastery
Ruins
From the terrace
of the church, the imposing ruins of the large monastery built between
XIIth and XIVth century are offered to the sight. It is here, which
during centuries, the old fortress of the Ligurians drew up, then the
Roman castrum. It is the part of the abbey which occupies greatest
surface. It extended in direction from the North-West on nearly 50
meters. the powerful arcades recall that this part of the monastery had
the capacity of reception necessary for a great number of monks.
The
high walls, the arcs, the pillars and the weepholes are all that
remains of this imposing building on five floors which finishes at the
edge of the chasm of the mountain with famous Tour of Beautiful Alda.
The
tower can be seen by far since it is isolated from the remainder of the
monastery. According to the popular legend, Beautiful Alda threw tower
to escape a group from mercenaries and left there unscathed. When it
however decided to be thrown again, this time by vanity and for money,
it was crushed against the rocks of the mountain. Hold, that points out
a similar legend to me which occurred to… the vault of Saint Michel d'
Aiguilhe. 
Stages
Church,
a staircase takes us along towards the third stage, and the workshop.
It is the level of the old monastery, on the Southern and Western side,
which is still occupied by the Rosminians fathers. The workshop is a
characteristic part, with a barrel vault of bricks, blackened by time
and smoke. One made there maintenance work of the tools or one
artisanalement created new manufactured goods. A forging mill is at the
bottom of the part.
We find many similar buildings. The structure
of the rooms is pressed on the hard stone. In this part, rooms of the old claustral part.
On
the second floor, also inhabited by the community and called stage of
the Carthusian monks, kitchen, the refectory, the wash-house, living
rooms, visiting rooms, and small the cloister.
Then
borrowing a staircase again, we find the first stage. There we have the
library, the reception rooms, the halls, the old storeroom and the room of the files. The hall with
preserved its thousand-year-old aspect with its ground in gravel and
its outcrops of rock.
Outside,
the old cistern, still filled up with water, and some parts opening on
outside. Us here are returned with the starting point, i.e. davant the
monumental staircase arriving in front of the large porch of entry. 
