ABBEY OF SANT'ANTIMO: Inside

Came back to the outside of the Abbey.

The layout of the basilica with three naves, the walkway and the radiating chapels, is similar to the great pilgrimage churches of French-style, as are the upward part of the nave and the decorations in relief with geometric and phytomorphic shapes of exceptional quality, among them being the capital with Daniel and the lion attributed to the Master of Cabestany, at the time active in several European cities. Draws Lombard art, instead, the alternating between columns and cruciform columns, as well as some of the decorative elements, such as the capitals of the walkway and the bell tower.

Detail of the apse, Abbey of Sant'Antimo, Montalcino, Siena

The interior of the church, long 42.40 m., has three naves divided by columns, each group of three alternating with a cross-shaped pillars. Beautiful are the capitals, some in onyx, including noteworthy, as already mentioned, the capital of "Daniel and the lions' (second on the right) attributed to the Master of Cabestany.

The roof of the nave is a truss discoveries, while the aisles have vaults. The right aisle is wider than the left and both shrink significantly after the sixth arch.

The semicircular apse has the top that forms the head and curving of the nave is illuminated by a mullioned window and the bottom also forms a semicircular peribolus open for seven arches to the nave and has three apses outward semicircular.

In peribolus within two blind arches of the apse are two frescoes by Spinello Aretino (early fifteenth century) representing the Holy Pope and San Sebastian.

Down the aisle on the left is the Bell Tower, with a three-apse chapel, while the right side of the aisle to the altar height is entered in the sacristy which has frescoes of the fifteenth century.

To the right of the main altar opens a stairway leading to a small rectangular crypt, the altarpiece of the crypt is a Roman tombstone (347 AD).

Search Hotels