9 – We have now entered through the gate where once the cloister had stood. I gaze to my left, towards the south wall of the church, where I notice a main door of undoubted artistic value. I get closer in order to admire the beautiful decorations: mythological animals on the architrave with foliage motifs and geometrical designs on the side posts.
Brother Giovanni begins to narrate: “This door belongs to the 10th century. It dates back to the period preceding the erection of the large church. Try to imagine this place in those far off times. We are on the territory conquered and then ruled over by the Lombards…”
I interrupt him, and say, “I remember having read that the abbey of Sant’Antimo was founded by Charlemagne. The court and army of the Frankish king had been struck down by a pestilence in the neighbourhood of Mount Amiata. The emperor begged the help of God for the ceasing of the plague, and having thus obtained the grace, as a sign of gratitude, built this church.”
10 – The brother smiles at me, and continues, “There are many people who know the legend which ascribes Charlemagne as the founder of this monastery. You know, in the Middle Ages, it was customary to augment the importance of certain edifices, attributing with extraordinary events the foundation to a celebrated personality. Unfortunately, the tourist guides or other popular texts frequently cite only this data, continually utilising the same sources, without making more accurate historic researches on the matter. And so time passes and … the legend remains. The historic facts, however, differ somewhat. Now I will explain to you what most probably came about, to begin many years before the Carolingian epoch.
11 – “As a matter of fact, the primitive building nucleus is to be traced back to the epoch when the relics of Sant’Antimo of Arezzo were venerated. At the death of the saint, some pious persons built a little chapel over the place of his martyrdom, in order to pray there at his tomb. A Roman villa already existed on the spot, data confirmed by the presence of archaeological findings to be seen in the abbey, such as the bas-relief with the cornucopia, on the north side of the bell tower, or some columns in the Carolingian crypt, dating to the Roman epoch. It is thought that there must also have been a fount with curative qualities, because a fragment of stone was found with the inscription – “Venite et bibite”. We know that in the year 715 this martyr church dedicated to Sant’Antimo was in the keeping of a priest belonging to the diocese of Chiusi.”
N.B. (in order to simplify, and to distinguish it from the subsequent constructions, we will name this first nucleus ‘Sant’Antimo 1’).
12 – “Roundabout the year 770, the Lombards designated the Abbot Tao, (of Pistoian origin), to build the first Benedictine monastery (which we will name ‘Sant’Antimo II), entrusting him the administration of the state property of that territory on which the monastery was to be erected. In fact, the Lombard kings utilised the existing monasteries, and frequently they would build new ones at a distance of 30 km between them, in order to establish halting and refreshment posts for the pilgrims on their way to Rome. These posts were also necessary for the merchants, the soldiers, and the king’s messengers, passing along that route.
13 – “On his return from Rome in the year 781, while keeping to the main route of communications devised by the Lombards (named ‘Francigena’ because the road was of French origin), Charlemagne arrived at Sant’Antimo. On that occasion, he set his seal on the foundations of this first monastery, then being erected. On the 29th December, 814, a charter of Loius the Pious, son and successor of Charlemagne, enriched the abbey with gifts and privileges. Sant’Antimo therefore became an imperial abbey in every way – an investiture that would serve to move it towards the maximum of it’s development.”
The brother interrupts the narrative, and has me sit down beside him on a low stone wall, most probably that which now remains of the outer wall of the old cloister.