Abbazia di Vallombrosa

The history of Reggello is linked to the Abbey of Vallombrosa, an important monastic complex founded by San Giovanni Gualberto de' Visdomini that rises near the town. The origins of the Vallombrosiani congregation are even more ancient that those of the town.

Giovanni de' Guisdomini created the order of the Vallombrosiani in 1015, approximately, after abandoning the Benedictine convent of San Miniato with other companions after some disputes with the abbot. He gave life to a new congregation together with other hermits met in Vallombrosa and it was based on ideals taken from his previous experience: community life, poverty, prayers, hospitality and work. The institution of the "conversi" was a peculiar institution. They were a group of friars who had the task to keep in contact with the external world so that the others could continue their hermitage.
Soon, the Vallombrosiano convent began benefiting from bequests and donations enriching its patrimony remarkably. It acquired most of the estates of the Monastery of Sant'Ilario al Fiano and it received from the Counts Guerra half of the castle of Magnale and Pagiano and the annexed territories in 1103. Rapidly, the coenoby of Vallombrosa developed into an authentic rural seigniory and its power further increased with a papal bull of 1255, by which Alexander IV gave the friars the Abbey of Sant'Ellero, too, with all its goods.
Even if Florence annexed the monastery in 1280, it kept its autonomy and its own statute. In the XIII century, the abbot of Vallombrosa also became the Count of Magnale with the task to nominate his vicar to administer justice within the jurisdiction of the monastery. By 1377, the properties of the Vallombrosani included more than sixty holdings and plots of ground and a real community with more than 120 people had developed inside the convent. The monastery has its own business life based on timber trade and livestock farming.
In the XVI century, the rich and powerful convent of Vallombrosa caught the attention of the Spanish troops during their presence in Tuscany. It was severely damaged when it was occupied by Charles V' s troops in 1530. Instead, the hated abbot Giovanni Maria Canigiani from Florence put its income in difficult position when he demanded and obtained a very rich pension. Almost half of the of the congregation's earnings were needed to pay it. In the second half of the XVI century, the abbey started to thrive again and it was also restored.
The congregation of the Vallombrosiani was suppressed in the Napoleonic age, when the French emperor initiated his fight against the religious brotherhoods, but it recuperated its properties in 1818. Later on, after the Unity of Italy, a second abolition of all the orders was settled. In 1866., the friars were obliged to abandon the complex again. They returned here in 1949, only, and took back the forest area that had thriven thanks to a huge forestation works since 1963.