Pictures of Montecassino Abbey

Following up on yesterday’s post of pictures of the crypt of Montecassino Abbey, here are some of the main church and some of the things around it, starting with the most important part of it, the burial site of St Benedict and his sister St Scholastica, behind the high altar.

As I am sure our readers know, Montecassino Abbey was heavily bombed during World War II, and painstakingly restored afterwards. The magnificent baroque architectural decorations were very well restored, but the fresco work within parts of it is new - not ugly, and not exactly incongruous with the style of the rest of the building, but somehow lacking.  

The abbatial cathedra. Many abbeys have very nice thrones for the abbot, but in this case, it is set up like that of a bishop because until quite recently, Montecassino was a territorial abbey, meaning that the abbot functioned as the ordinary of the region around it. (For things that only a bishop can do, such as priestly ordinations, a bishop would visit from elsewhere.)

A very nice marble intarsia of the stem of Pope Benedict XVI, recently added to the base of one of the pillars.

The ceiling of the nave, seen from within the choir, behind the main altar. The paintings which originally filled it were destroyed in the bombing, and have never been replaced.

Looking into the dome from the choir.

The Sacrament chapel.

The bronze doors of the central portal, which have survived from 1060s through the many vicissitudes of the abbey’s history.

Looking back at the rather plain façade from the main courtyard in front of the church... 

and then out to the surrounding countryside.

A state of St Benedict in a garden courtyard to the side of the one shown above.

Looking out from the windows of the gift-shop. At the left of this photo can be seen the cemetery of the Polish soldiers who died during the great battle that took place in the vicinity of the abbey in May of 1944, numbering 1072. The white wall beneath the cross is a nine-story tall columbarium.