Santa Maria Del Bosco Abbey in Contessa Entellina
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In the XNUMXth century, it was built near Contessa Entellina the beautiful Abbey of Santa Maria del Bosco, a place of worship, which still today welcomes all the faithful who go there on pilgrimage.
Contessa Entellina is located 570 meters above sea level in the Metropolitan City of Palermo and what you are about to read is the story of the Abbey of Santa Maria Del Bosco. The Monastery it originates at the end of the 1309th century, when a group of monks built a very inhospitable refuge in the Calatamauro wood. A few years later, the Church was built which in XNUMX would receive the consecration from the Bishop of Agrigento as a Basilica, while the Monastery would be populated by the Order of the Benedictines.
The prestige and privileges of the Basilica, even with the Holy See, grew more and more and paralleled the growth of the Church, enlarged and finally completed only in the eighteenth century. For this large, beautiful and important Basilica, great artists such as Andrea della Robbia worked, making the Abbey of Santa Maria Del Bosco in Contessa Entellina a religious building of extraordinary beauty, still able today to fascinate the faithful in search of recollection and prayer.
Following the damage caused by a lightning strike in 1887 and the 1968 Valle del Belice earthquake, major works began in 2009 for the renovation of part of the Abbey.
The architecture of the Abbey of Santa Maria Del Bosco in Contessa Entellina and the works it houses
The large church is characterized above all by the presence of two Cloisters, a large vault and the crypt. The beautiful Cloisters, one Renaissance it's one Barocco, have two colonnades with over 30 columns each, niches and portals. One of the portals of the Renaissance Cloister leads to the novitiate, while the potale that gives access to the Abbey is sixteenth-century and imposing, but the element that most attracts the eye of the faithful and visitors is undoubtedly the royal staircase, with balconies flank the stairway.
The relics of San Gerlando and San Gregorio are kept in the Church, while many of the works of art that were originally in the Abbey are now kept in various museums on the island.
Around the cloisters, there are various rooms, such as the small dining room reserved for the most illustrious guests or the large refectory of the monastery, located in a large hall on the ground floor. Going up to the upper floor, one finds the dormitory with the monks' cells, the library and the connecting galleries. Visiting the Abbey of Santa Maria Del Bosco in Contessa Entellina, you will also discover many other works of art and little secrets of the architects of the time.
What you can do at the Abbey of Santa Maria Del Bosco in Contessa Entellina and in the surrounding area
At the Abbey of Santa Maria Del Bosco in Contessa Entellina you can gather in prayer, but you can also discover all the beauty of sacred art, admiring works such as the Assumption into Heaven of the Virgin Mary, the stuccos and wall paintings ornamental, the entire architectural structure of the monastery and the abbey. Afterwards, you can go to the Municipal Library, Monreale and Palermo, on the trail of the wonderful treasures once kept at the Abbey of Santa Maria del Bosco.
In Contessa Entellina, however, you will also find other interesting attractions to visit, such as the beautiful Church of SS. Annunziata and San Nicolò di Mira, Calatamauro Castle and archaeological site of Entella. In the village, you will also find many churches where the Byzantine rite is celebrated, such as the Church of Maria dell'Itria or that of Sant'Antonio Abate.
Among the natural beauties of the surroundings, just 16 km from the village, you will find the Monte Genuardo Oriented Nature Reserve And that of Entella cave, while the Lake Garcia it is located about 16 km further north of the center.
How is it possible to get to the Abbey of Santa Maria Del Bosco in Contessa Entellina
Contessa Entellina can be easily reached by car or train; visitors arriving with their own auto they can take the A29 Palermo-Mazara del Vallo and take the exit for Gallitello, which is located about 24 km from the town; on the train, getting off at Castelvetrano Station (34 km from Contessa Entellina) you will find buses and shuttles going to the town.
© Image by David Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0 - David Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
