MONASTERIO DE SANTA MARÍA DE POMPOSA

The Insula Pomposiana, the area in which the abbey was built, was so called because it was originally surrounded by the waters of the Po and the sea, which determined favorable conditions both from a climatic and security point of view. and defense of the territory. Furthermore, the relative isolation and the presence of forests favored that climate of solitude and industriousness that are characteristic elements of Benedictine monasticism, without forgetting the proximity of the Via Romea, the town of Codigoro and the city of Ferrara.

Already in the 6th-7th centuries, a first settlement took place at the initiative of the monks of Bobbio, but the first written testimony is a document from Pope John VIII from the year 874, in which he claimed jurisdiction over the abbey against the claims of the prelate of Ravenna. In 981 Pomposa fell under the control of the monastery of San Salvatore di Pavia, which was later disputed by the archdiocese of Ravenna at the time when Gerbert of Aurillac was its owner: himself, who became Pope under the name of Sylvester II , stipulated an agreement with Emperor Otto III that, in 1001, completely freed the monastery from dependence on San Salvatore. Thanks to numerous donations, including a salt mine in Comacchio, the institution thus increased its power and importance, reaching the peak of its development in the 11th century, during which the monastic complex adopted its current appearance, with the new dedication of the church, the construction of the bell tower and the cloister, the construction of the Palazzo della Ragione in front of the monastery in which the abbot exercised civil justice.

Many illustrious personalities stayed there, notably Pier Damiani and Guido d’Arezzo (who invented modern musical notation here), and then, in 1321, Dante Alighieri, who contracted malaria there, resulting in his death. In fact, the decline of the abbey had already begun in 1152, after a flood that caused major flooding events. In 1423 it was entrusted to the commission, with the progressive loss of many assets and its transfer to the property of the monastery of San Benedetto of Ferrara (1496), until the suppression decreed by Innocent the deterioration of the buildings continued, acquired at auction in 1802 by the Marquises Guiccioli who used them for their agricultural activities, until the Italian State expropriated them between 1910 and 1914, beginning their restoration in 1925-1930. In 1965, Pope Paul VI granted the bishop of Comacchio the title of abbot of Pomposa, transferred in 1986 to the archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio.

In the current monastic complex the cenobium is preserved, in addition to the Palazzo della Ragione that stands out over the remains of the ancient cloister with the well in the center, the Sala Capitolare, with frescoes by a student of Giotto from the 14th century onwards. three walls, and the refectory, which presents the most precious pictorial cycle of the abbey: completed between 1316 and 1320 and attributed to Pietro da Rimini, it is constituted at the center of the blessing of Christ between Saint John the Baptist, the Virgin, Saint Benedict and Saint Guido (abbot Guido degli Strambiati, died 1146), on the sides of The Last Supper and the Miracle of Saint Guido. Between these two rooms was the bedroom, today used as the Pomposian Museum, where marble materials, ceramics and frescoes taken from the complex are found.

The abbey church, dedicated to the Virgin, is located To the right of the monastery: the oldest nucleus (7th-8th centuries), of Ravenna-Byzantine inspiration, was maintained in later transformations, when the basilica-shaped building with three naves was built. and three apses (added in 1150; the right one was later suppressed) was lengthened (11th century) with the addition of two openings and the construction of a narthex with three access arches, richly decorated according to oriental taste, which takes up Carolingian works from West. . The floor of the building, made of opus sectile marble (6th-12th centuries), is illustrated with animal, plant and geometric elements; On the walls, the frescoes of the 14th century Bolognese school represent stories from the Old, New Testament and Apocalypse on various sides: in particular, in the representations of some knights, French influences are perceived, especially in their references to folklore. theme of wild hunting, like the Cluniac one, can be seen in the 11th century bas-relief. A large angel drives the dragon back into the abyss at the end of the cycle, near the central apse, which in turn is decorated with frescoes by Vitale da Bologna, above all a majestic Christ with angels and saints, to the right of which is the Virgin, the client Abbot Andrew, Saint Guido and in the record below the Evangelists, the doctors of the Church and the stories of Saint Eustace, from his conversion to martyrdom. On the counterfaçade the Last Judgment is illustrated, according to a perspective that refers more to the Gospel of Matthew than to the Apocalypse, which aligns Pomposa with the iconographic tradition that began during the 12th century in Languedoc and Spain, in which a new representation and understanding of the Final Event.

Next to the left nave, at the height of the atrium, stands the majestic bell tower (48 meters) built in Romanesque-Lombard style in 1063: the inscription on a slab tells us that Deusdedit was the architect who designed it, with a structure that It foresees a progressive increase in the number and size of the windows in order to reduce the weight of the tower and allow better diffusion of the sound of its bells.

Roberto Bellini for URBS REGIA

– Pomposia monasterium modo in Italia primum. La biblioteca di Pomposa, a cura di Giuseppe Billanovich, Padova 1994.
– Pomposa. Storia Arte Architettura, a cura di Antonio Samaritani – Carla Di Francesco, Ferrara 1999.
– Ruggero Benericetti, Gli arcivescovi di Ravenna ed il monastero di S. Maria di Pomposa nell’alto medioevo, «Benedictina», 64 (2017), pp. 7-43.
– Marcello Simoni, I misteri dell’abbazia di Pomposa. Immagini, simboli e storie, Milano 2017.
– L’abbazia di Pomposa. Un cammino di studi all’ombra del campanile (1063-2013). Atti della Giornata di studi pomposiani (Abbazia di Pomposa, sala delle Stilate, 19 ottobre 2013), a cura di Carla Di Francesco – Antonio Manfredi, Ferrara 2017.