Vallombrosa Abbey

The Vallombrosa abbey is very ancient, it was founded in 1036 by San Giovanni Gualberto, a Benedictine monk, founder of the Vallombrosano order based on austere common life, poverty, refusal of gifts and protections. Originally the complex was different from now, but over time it expanded to take on its current appearance at the end of the fifteenth century. The mighty tower  was built in the sixteenth century; the facade of the church is seventeenth-century, while the interior decoration was completed in the following century. In the dense forest, which in fact was chosen as a hermitage by San Giovanni Gualberto, there are chapels and tabernacles with stories from the life of the saint, made between the 16th and 17th centuries. The tower also houses a museum of sacred art.