San Galgano

The Abbey of  San Galgano is a Cistercian abbey, situated  at about  thirty kilometers far from Siena, in the municipality of Chiusdino. The site is composed by  the hermitage (called "Round Montesiepi") and the great abbey, now completely ruined and reduced to only walls. The absence of the roof - which emphasizes the articulation of the architectural structure -  is common to those of Melrose and Kelso in Scotland, of Cashel in Ireland and Eldena in Germany. 
The history of San Galgano is particularly striking: Galgano Guidotti, son of Guido and Dionisia, was born in 1148 in Chiusdino (Siena), a small village perched on a hill not far from the Abbey, in that part of the Middle Ages full of violence and abuses,  too often used in a funny way as a power-manifestation.
And also Galgano, like the other knights, was proud and arrogant and lived his youth in a frivolous way, but after some time he began to realize the futility of his lifestyle, feeling the agony of not having a purpose in life. In this mood he developed the desire to change his life and disgusted by the atrocities he ws used to see, decided  to devote himself to a life of hermitage and penance. As a tangible sign of surrender to any form of perpetual violence took his sword and stuck it in a rock that emerged from the ground, with the intention of using it as a cross rather than as a weapon  to offend: a great symbolic gesture. Galgano in 1185 was declared Saint by Pope Lucius III and in the years following his death, a small church was built  on his hermitage, known today as the’ Rotonda Montesiepi’.  
The  San Galgano Abbey has been for centuries an important cross-road and point of reference for travelers and pilgrims, nowadays is a tourist destination due to the fascinating legend of the' Sword in the Stone 'which creates parallels to the history of one of the Knights of Arthur' , Galvano,: history is mixed with the myth...