EREMO DI MONTESIEPI
Hermitage with a singular shape located on Mount Siepi, consisting of a church with a circular plan and a chapel in San Galgano
A hermitage with a very singular shape, dating from the late 12th century and consecrated in 1185 by the Bishop of Volterra, named Ildebrando Pannocchieschi. It is located on Mount Siepi, a few hundred meters north of San Galgano Abbey. Its construction in the rotunda would be inspired either by the castle of Saint-Ange, in Rome, or by an Etruscan tomb, the sources diverge. The complex consists of a circular church, interrupted only by the small apse, and a chapel. The presbytery, although it seems to be contemporary with the rest of the building, dates from the 18th century.
In addition to frescoes attributed to the painter of the Sienese school, Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1290-1348), the hermitage of Montesiepi houses in its centre the spada della roccia. It is the famous sword that Saint Galgano (1148-1181) allegedly planted in 1180 in a rock as a cross. It symbolically represents the transition from a life of debauchery and war to a life of peace and religion for this knight who experienced a dissolute and libertine youth, before preaching in the Sienese region following the appearance of the Archangel Michael in 1170.
For a long time, this sword - now very rusty and now protected under a Plexiglas hunt - was considered by some to be a fraud. But analyses carried out in 2001 prove that it is indeed well embedded in the rock! One can only underline the incredible similarity of this legend with that of the Knights of the Round Table....
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