ABBEY OF CHIARAVALLE

The church houses valuable works such as the pictorial cycle of the Fiammenghini brothers, the seventeenth-century wooden choir in Baroque style, and the Giotto cycle of the lantern narrating the annunciation of the death of the Virgin Mary and her assumption into heaven, a unique theme of its kind, represented with extraordinary stylistic delicacy and strong narrative meaning. From the thirteenth-century cloister you can access the refectory and the chapter house, where you can admire valuable graffiti showing Milan at the end of the fifteenth century, and from its walkers you can contemplate the view of the nolar tower, called ciribiciaccola, the most famous and fascinating architectural part of the abbey.  The monastic complex is completed by the thirteenth-century mill, an ancient place of grain grinding that has now become a multifunctional center for sustainability education. The monastic day that the Cistercian community still lives today is marked by a regular timetable that follows the basic setting of the Rule of St. Benedict and responds to the needs and customs of the individual community. The time is mainly dedicated to prayer and work, according to the typical Benedictine inspiration and in the spirit of sharing fraternal life. Connecting the values of the Cistercian monastic community with the outside world is the adjacent Chiaravalle Mill, a place where to recover roots, observe, disseminate and develop sustainable life models through paths managed by the Koinè Onlus social cooperative in collaboration with the monastic community and the South Milan Agricultural Park. Chiaravalle is an integral part of the Walley of the Monks, an area rich in history, crossed by new projects of settlement transformation, redevelopment, technological experimentation attentive to the environment. The Valley of the Monks is a gateway to the South Milan Agricultural Park and home to the Vettabbia Park, with a network of more than 40 realities, to revive a precious asset for Milan.