Cairate, is a municipality located on a hillside overlooking the valley of the Olona river which in this point of the province of Varese opens more than to the north and well known for the splendid Monastery of Santa Maria Assunta, a gem of the Middle Ages erected on the remains of a fortification.
This medieval architectural masterpiece, according to a legend narrated, owes its foundation to a Lombard princess called Manigunda who decided to found it in 737 after having thirsted at a spring in Bergoro, a hamlet of the nearby Fagnano Olona, recovering from an illness by deciding to build this site as a sign of gratitude to Santa Maria Assunta.
The site later became a convent of Benedictine nuns and the destination of numerous pilgrims who were accommodated in an adjacent guesthouse.
This historic monastery purchased by the municipal administration of Cairatese in 1973, restoration works began since then that have produced apart from the preservation of a treasure of the local heritage of immense value, new great discoveries.
It will be stated that this religious site already in the 15th century, as for the documentation drawn up by the humanist Tristano Calco, had one of them with the discovery of a sarcophagus with the remains of a woman dressed in an elegant belt, fibulae and golden robe, living a supposition that those remains were of the ancient foundress, namely the Princess Manigunda.
Further excavations in contemporary times determined that the place where the Monastery was built was inhabited in Roman times with the discovery of a complex dedicated to agricultural tasks.
In late antiquity, in the territory crossed by the river Olona, which has its source at the Rasa hill near Varese, a necropolis was built with various tombs and burial mounds.
Next to it this Church, which with the Lombard occupation gave development by miracles and not to a monastic community, that of Cairate was one of the first integrated into the possessions of the Curia of Pavia linked to the Emperor Frederick I who obtained this land in a strenuous struggle against the Bishops of the Duchy of Milan.
It is said that the famous Frederick Barbarossa slept in the guesthouse of the Monastery the night before the famous Battle of Legnano which saw the Imperial troops facing the Lombard League.
The structure, according to in-depth studies, had considerable changes in its layout in the twelfth century when its architectural profile took on the appearance of a small basilica with three naves.
In 1300 the apse of the central nave was transformed which took a quadrangular shape while at the turn of the 15th and 16thcenturies not only the church changed which was divided into two sections with a partition that divided the faithful from the external altar with the other the Nuns of Clasusura, but also the beautiful cloister.
Some sacred objects and sculptures of those periods, due to their value, were transferred to historical museums in nearby Gallarate and others to Milan, while some are still kept in a room that should have been the kitchen of the Monastery of Santa Maria Assunta.
The apse corresponding to the main nave in 1560 was frescoed by Aurelio Luini , a Milanese painter son of the great Bernardino, master of the Lombard Renaissance, depicting the Assumption of the Virgin which has a width of about 9.0 meters by a height of 14.0 meters.
From the same period is the tomb crypt of the Nuns located in the central point of the nave itself, works that were commissioned by the Abbess Antonia Castiglioni in 1480.
Alongside these works there was a new reorganization of the cloister that took on typically late Gothic forms and the Abbess also had her room embellished with decorations depicting animals, cherubs, some weapons and musical instruments and for this reason it was called the Music Room.
Other frescoes of the late Middle Ages are present in an adjoining room, probably the work of artists of the school of Castiglione Olona, visible traces in the style of execution that brings together canons of late-Gothic painting with nuances close to the early Lombard Renaissance.
Historically, the convent was closed in 1799 in conjunction with the laws issued by the Cisalpine Republic that decided to suppress the Benedictine order.You stop in the cloister to admire the wonderful symmetry of the arches, an authentic artistic masterpiece forming a beautiful, large portico.
A visit to this historic monastery is worth it, its value is immense and if you love art and history it will certainly be something to remember with great pleasure.
Link : https://www.monasterodicairate.it/
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