The Road of the Abbeys

The Road of the Abbeys draws an itinerary through the South Milan Agricultural Park and the Ticino Park, discovering unique environments marked by irrigation ditches, canals, fountains, canals, mills, country roads and large farmsteads.

The circuit, just over 100 km, is divided into short sections and has as its first and last stops two buildings founded by the religious order of the Humiliati: the Abbey of San Lorenzo in Monluè and the church of San Pietro in Gessate.

The abbeys you will encounter along the way are architectural masterpieces that have
played a decisive role in the development of agriculture and the design of the landscape:
with this in mind, the route aims to intertwine religious tourism, cultural tourism and tourism
food and wine.

From Monluè, you cross the Parco Agricolo Sud, an area that since the Middle Ages has seen man working by modifying the quality of the landscape, especially in function of a primary resource that has characterized the area: water.

And it was the founder of theAbbey of Clairvaux, Bernard de Fontaine, known as Bernard of Clairvaux, who, between 1150 and 1160, transformed an uncultivated and swampy piece of land, which the City of Milan donated to him, into a center of work and prayer.

The church has a Latin-cross plan, rectangular choir and transept with chapel; a decidedly essential structure, which was abandoned in later centuries in favor of substantial interventions, such as the imposing Bell Tower (1347-49, possibly by Pecorari) and the rich cycle of paintings.

Travelling along the Road of the Abbeys we reach Viboldone Abbey, inSan Giuliano
Milanese, in the province of Milan.
It was founded in 1176 and completed in 1348 by the order
religious order of the Humiliati, formed by monks, nuns and lay people who led lives of
prayer and work.