Monte Oliveto Abbey, Siena surroundings

Founded in 1310 by San Bernardo Tolomei, who was exponent of one of the most powerful families of Siena and a strict observer of the Benedictine rule (ora et labora – pray and work), Monte Oliveto Abbey rises on a hill and it’s defended on three sides by insurmountable cliffs. Nowadays the Abbey is the seat of the Benedictine congregation and houses the Institute of books restoration. Crossing the big cloister, fulcrum of all the building which is frescoed with the “San Benedetto’s stories”, you arrive in the church built in XV century but then renovated with baroques forms. Among the great number of works here contained there’s a wooden choir made by Frate Giovanni da Verona. In the middle cloister there’s the beautiful fresco representing the Coronation of the Virgin by Sodoma and The deposition by an unknown artist. Then you’ll enter in the monastic library and in the pharmacy in which are conserved numerous pots of the XVII century and numerous medical herbs.