Although the fourth Italian foundation and the first in Lombardy (1134), the Morimondo Abbey church deviates from all other Cistercian constructions of the XII century. Morimondo is an example of Cistercian architecture already evolved toward the gothic style, com’è emphasized by the use of a cross vault ogival that can also create rectangular bays. In fact in the central nave, they are not a square base, but rectangular, and each of them corresponds to a square bay in the side naves by increasing therefore the sense of verticality. Moreover the magnitude of Morimondo is due to the presence of well eight bays, unlike churches previous abbaziali normally più small. But the majesty of the church of Morimondo is given also from total essentiality and by a sense of order of exposed brick. The Renaissance and the Baroque have not altered the style and the order of the XII century.
In the cloister, despite the successive insertions (the construction of three arcades around 1475 and the superelevation of the sides north and west toward the half of the XVIII century), is still readable on the typology of the monastic complex with the usual distribution of environments. Among these should be mentioned: the capitulary hall that maintains all its original characteristics and the refectory with the kitchen that occur in a splendid robe in the seventeenth century. Another peculiarity of the abbey is to be built on more plans, to close to a depression. The plan of the cloister in the entire monastic part is the third above two levels consisting of large halls built with vaults supported by a succession of columns, moreover, above the capitular hall, still existing in the dormitory of the monks (originally a single room). This elevation plans existing integrally toward the east and south, but also covered the side of lay brothers. Seen from the east and from the south the monastery then presents itself as a stately building with four floors. Despite the looting, earthquakes, as well as changes the seventeenth century and the suppression (1798), the monument is survived and with it are alive the values for which it was built.
The Morimondo Abbey, begins its history on 4 October 1134 with the arrival of a group of monks founders coming from the house-mother of Morimond, in France. Greeted initially to Coronate, about a mile from the final seat, the monks chose then the place for the construction of their monastery, and the 11 November 1136, when they moved to Morimondo, the cenoby had to be GIà partially built and habitable. The edification of the church was begun in 1182, which is delayed with respect to the building of the monastery because of disputes with the pieve di Casorate, and finished in 1296. In 1237 and in 1245 for the raids of the imperial troops Pavesi, who plundered the monastery by reducing it to a minimum, construction work had to undergo lengthy interruptions probably some years. In the XIV century registers a certain decline due to external causes, as the looting of 1314, or as the transformation in commendam in 1450, which is common to all the abbeys, under the cardinal Giovanni Visconti. The 1564, marks another important step becauseé the abbey is erected parish by San Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan. In the seventeenth century the abbot Antonio Libanorio (1648-1652) in Ferrara he replicatedò for the cultural rebirth and spiritual life of Morimondo. The suppression, which took place on 31 May 1798 in the wake of the French Revolution, put an end to the presence of the Cistercian monks and caused the total dispersion of the heritage codicologico. From 1805 to 1950 the religious life was animated by priests Ambrosian. In 1991 Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini entrusted to the Congregation of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary the pastoral care of the parish with a new invitation to relaunch the Morimondo Abbey as a center of spirituality and pastoral initiatives.
The Abbey Museum
The Museum of the Abbey is constituted by the environments themselves of the Cistercian Abbey of Morimondo: the structure of the cenoby is still largely medieval of the twelfth and thirteenth century, with modifications and partial reconstructions of centuries fifteenth and sixteenth and seventeenth. Can be visited today the cloister, the chapter room, the salt of the work of the monks, the hall of the founders, the loggia, the refectory, the dormitory; environments extend over four building levels. Some environments are available as conference rooms and exhibition.
Ph. Andrea Lucini
museo@abbaziamorimondo.it