Today I thought we'd take a look at the Romanesque abbey of Sant'Andrea in Flumin, which is located near Ponzano Romano, a region located relatively near to Rome. In that regard, one can well expect to see a strong Roman influence and that is certainly in evidence here.
The abbey church was formerly a part of a Benedictine monastery. The church itself was originally founded in the sixth century by the daughter of a Roman patrician, while the monastery itself was founded in the eighth century. For a time this abbey was one of the imperial abbeys and for a few centuries around the beginning of the second millennium, it would become associated with the great abbey and basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome.
It was beginning in the seventeeth century that the monastery would begin to shift toward crisis, and by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with all of its associated political turmoil, that it would cease to exist as a monastery. Fortunately, in the mid twentieth century, and again in the 2000 Jubiliee Year, the former abbey church benefited from restorative works, the last of which were completed in 2004.
Turning our attention to the art and architecture of the abbey, we find a classic, first millennium, Romanesque model; a triple naved church, the naves separates by columns and arcades, an open-timber, trussed roof, cosmaesque payment, and most of all, a beautiful altar, ciborium and balustrade.
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| Detail of the balustrade |
The altar and sanctuary follows the traditional Roman model which sees the altar not only covered by a ciborium, but also a raised sanctuary/presbytery with a confessio style cavity where relics would be deposited (but which is today empty).
Located behind the altar is the remnant of the synthronon where the clergy would sit.
Behind, in the small, semi-circular apse, we find a splendid fresco of Christ resurrected.
Because this was an abbey, we find a separation in the middle of the nave, which would define the space for the choir for the monks, closest to the altar and presbytery, and the rest of the nave, reserved for the non-monastics. It is quite possible that there were at one time, secondary altars located here.
REMAINING FRESCOES
COSMATESQUE PAVEMENT
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