Camaldoli Attractions
The Abbey of Camáldoli, still the center of the Camaldolese Order, lies in the densely wooded hills of the Casentino in the extreme northeast of Tuscany, some 50km/30 mi north of Arezzo.
History
About the year 1000 a Benedictine monk name Romuald, a member of a noble Lombard family and a trusted adviser of the Emperors Henry II and Otto III, set out to renew monastic life, as part of the great movement for Church reform then in progress in the West. With this in mind cells were built in remote spots so that the individual monk might devote himself to contemplation. The Rule thus established attracted many adherents, and in 1012 the mother house of the new Order was built here, in the little town of Camáldoli, at an altitude of 800m/2,625ft. Soon afterwards some monks moved still higher up to find solitude at a height of 1,100m/3,600ft on the Campo Amabile, in what is now the Éremo di Camáldoli. During the 12th century the Camaldolese Order flourished, but in later centuries it was torn by dissensions and splits and never developed into a great and powerful Order.
History
About the year 1000 a Benedictine monk name Romuald, a member of a noble Lombard family and a trusted adviser of the Emperors Henry II and Otto III, set out to renew monastic life, as part of the great movement for Church reform then in progress in the West. With this in mind cells were built in remote spots so that the individual monk might devote himself to contemplation. The Rule thus established attracted many adherents, and in 1012 the mother house of the new Order was built here, in the little town of Camáldoli, at an altitude of 800m/2,625ft. Soon afterwards some monks moved still higher up to find solitude at a height of 1,100m/3,600ft on the Campo Amabile, in what is now the Éremo di Camáldoli. During the 12th century the Camaldolese Order flourished, but in later centuries it was torn by dissensions and splits and never developed into a great and powerful Order.
Read More
Éremo di Camáldoli
Éremo di Camáldoli was begun by a group of monks seeking solitude. Much of what can be seen today is the result of work done in the 17th and 18th C.
