Myths and legends hover about in the Tuscan air creating that aura of mystery which can stimulate imagination and curiosity of those who believe in the highly imaginative and allow dreams to carry them. How many times when we were little have we heard the story of the sword in the stone, of the legendary King Arthur who, young and helpless stable boy, managed to raise the hilt of the sword which for years had been stuck in the rock.
This legend takes on realistic features when you reach Tuscany, in the Valle del Merse, in the town of Chiusdino, in the Siena province, which still bears alive the mystery of the sword, kept in the church of Monte Siepi near the very famous Abbey of San Galgano, know as the abbey without a roof.
Legend tells that Galgano, a young man dedicated to a carefree and luxurious life, after receiving a vision of the Archangel Gabriel, abandoned his earthly goods to retire into meditation. To receive confirmation of God’s will, so it is told, he stuck his own sword into the rock recreating with the hilt the image of the cross of Christ. Upon his death, in 1181, Galgano was proclaimed a Saint and faithful flowed from everywhere to give him homage. For this reason, around 1184, the building of the San Galgano abbey was finished.
The abbey, after a period of great splendour during the pilgrimages to the reliquary of the Saint, was completely abandoned until, in 1786, the belltower collapsed destroying the roof of the main nave. The materials resulting were the object of sacking for centuries, until, at the beginning of the 1900’s it was restored and currently appears in all its gothic style majesty. Built on a flat part of the hill, with great pointed arches forming the walls, a green field for flooring and rose windows, double lancet windows and capitals which, at sunset, create a magic game of light and shadow.
The legendary rock in the stone is kept at the little church of Monte Siepi, a little building in Sienese Romanic style, the roof (characteristically dome-shaped) and the walls were built in concentric white and red circles. Currently the sword in the stone is under study to monitor building materials and give it a date.
(Photo: studio Album Fotografico - Livorno)
The mystery of the sword in the stone (In Italian)
Associazione culturale progetto Galgano (In Italian)
E-Mail: Municipality of Chiusdino
.jpg)
