Monastery of Sant'Antonio in Polesine

Timetable

From Mon. to Sat.: 9.30 - 11.30 /15.15 - 16.45.

Holy Mass : Weekdays 7.30 am.
Sundays and holidays 10.30 am
All weekdays and holidays at 3 pm Ninth hour.
All weekdays and holidays at 5 pm Vespers with Gregorian chants of the nuns.

Prices

Donations are welcome

Not accessible to people with disabilities.

Set in the heart of the medieval city, the monastery still gives the sense of isolation and tranquillity it did during its early years, when it stood upon an island in the middle of the Po.

Founded by the Blessed Beatrice d'Este, daughter of Marquis Azzo VII, the convent was always protected by the Este family, who were never sparing with money for its embellishment. In its period of greatest splendour, the growth of the Benedictine community was such that it occupied a large number of adjacent buildings; nowadays the nuns live in the oldest and most interesting wing of the complex.

Dogs are not allowed.

The Cloister and the interior

Entry into the monastery is through the smallest door under the narthex, which leads straight into the portico of the ancient cloister in which a chapel has been constructed containing the remains of the Blessed Beatrice d’Este. A narrow door leads to the nuns' choir, one of the most charming of settings in Ferrara: the large room, with the choir stalls along its sides, is dominated by a large altarpiece The Flagellation by Nicolò Roselli (16th cent.), framed by a grand ancon of the same period, in sculpted gilt wood. On the opposite side three chapels open out, all decorated with precious frescoes.

The chapels

The left chapel is dedicated to the Stories from Jesus Childhood and to the Life of the Virgin Mary; these are frescoes of the Giotto school, executed between 1315 and 1320. The one in the centre is the largest of the three and above it is an architrave upon which rests an expressive 15th-century Crucifix. The front wall is decorated by an Annunciation by Domenico Panetti (15th cent.). The two side walls have a similar iconography: high up there are coloured 14th-century drapes, lower down images of the Virgin Mary and various saints, some of which date back to the second half of the 15th century. The ceiling with grotesques is noteworthy: a very strange presence of pagan origin in an ecclesiastical setting, bearing witness to the close ties between the monastery and the court, where such decorations were fashionable in the late 1600s. The chapel on the right has the Passion as its theme and is the work of two masters of the Giotto school: one from the end of the 13th century painted Jesus Raised on the Cross and the other from the middle of the 14th century.

Contacts

Via del Gambone, 15 - 44121 Ferrara (Italia)

Tel. 0532 64068
benedettineferrara@gmail.com

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