Carceri Abbey

The following itinerary will take you to the visit of the Abbey at Carceri (37 km from Padua), one of the most interesting, but little-known, monuments in the Province of Padua.

Leaving Padua follow southward the State Road 16 (Strada Battaglia) until you reach Monselice, one of the best preserved mediaeval walled towns of the area. Here take the State Road 10 (Padana Inferiore) to Este, another fortified town of the Province, and then follow directions to Carceri.

Founded about 1189 by some monks of the order of the Augustinians, the abbey occupied the site of a preexisting church. The abbey was heavily damaged throughout the Middle Ages by the invasions of the the barbarians and by natural calamities, such as floods, epidemics and so on.

In 1407 Pope Gregory XII passed the church and the abbey to Camaldolite monks, who ran the abbey until 1690. During their regency the abbey reached the highest of its splendour: two new cloisters and a precious library were added. The library became one of the main cultural centres of the area. Moreover, the monks accumulated and drained vast holdings of land.

In 1643 a fire destroyed most of the church. Only the monks’ stalls, the presbitery and the adjacent parts were not damaged.

After the fire, the abbey was reconstructed in baroque style and it was consecrated in 1686 by S. Gregorio Barbarigo.

In 1690 Pope Alessandro VIII suppressed the abbey and its lands were sold by auction in order to gain money to give financial support to the war of the Serenissima Republic against the Turks.

The abbey was bought by the Carminati family who had it transformed into a farm; some cloisters and the monks’ cells were destroyed, the books of the library were sold or lost, many works of art were ruined or transferred to other places.

The church became part of the Diocese belongings.

In 1951 the Carminati donated the building to the Church of Carceri. The surviving abbey and church are only the half of the complex building which existed in the 17^th century. The entrance hall and the tower date back to 1450; the guestquarter, which is also the most imposing and architectonically beautiful part of the abbey, with a 14^th century well; some parts of the church and the presbitery date back to the 13^th century; the choir and part of the bell tower to the 14^th-16^th c.; the font is adorned with frescoes of the 15^th c.; the 13^th c. little cloister has a 14^th c. fountain; of great interest is also the frescoes hall (former library).

The abbey nowadays hosts a museum displaying traditional country tools, an exhibition of paintings and a photographic exhibition of the Abbey.