San Benedetto Po, a thousand-year-old village of Lower Mantua. Art, nature and enogastronomy

Traveling along roads and narrow streets immersed in the endless expanses of fertile Lower Mantuan countryside, one reaches San Benedetto Po, a village of almost 7,000 inhabitants just over twenty kilometers from Mantua that holds architectural and artistic treasures of great value and importance. Formerly called San Benedetto in Polirone, from the island that stood between the Po River and the Lirone on which a Benedictine monastery was founded in 1007 at the behest of Tedaldo di Canossa, what is now considered one of the most beautiful villages in Italy developed right on the banks of the longest river in our peninsula, around theancient monastic complex. The latter had over the centuries, until its suppression in 1797 by Napoleon, a fundamental role both from a religious and a cultural point of view in the history of Italian monasticism. And to this day, the great Monastery with its Basilica in the very central Piazza Matilde di Canossa is the centerpiece of San Benedetto Po, from which an ideal itinerary for visiting the Mantuan village can be started.

As mentioned earlier, Tedaldo di Canossa entrusted some monks in 1007 with a private monastery he had built in order to control the territory and strengthen a strategic position. Towards the middle of the 11th century, Tedaldo’s son Bonifacio of Canossa wanted to build a new church; it was later modified according to the Cluniac typology with the addition of a transept and an ambulatory with radial chapels when Matilda of Canossa (Mantua, 1046 - Bondeno di Roncore, 1115) entrusted the abbey in 1077 to Pope Gregory VII, who aggregated it to the congregation of Cluny. It was in the first half of the 15th century, however, that the monastic complex began to flourish again, thanks to Pope Martin V, who in 1419 assigned Polirone in commenda to the apostolic prothonotary Guido Gonzaga, brother of Marquis Gianfrancesco, who granted the monastery to the congregation of Santa Giustina of Padua, undertaking to finance the extensive building renovation of the monastery: it was transformed into a complex rich in Gothic styles, with ogival cross vaults in the nave, four side chapels and an octagonal tiburium.

Thanks to the close relationship with the Gonzagas, the complex was then the subject of further interventions in the 16th century, when in 1540 Abbot Gregorio Cortese, a humanist and expert in art and architecture, commissioned Giulio Romano (real name Giulio Pippi, Rome, 1492 or 1499 - Mantua, 1546) to rearrange the entire monastery into the form in which we see it today. All the rooms of the monastery have remained intact, including the 15th-century cloisters of St. Simeon (patron saint of the Polironian abbey) and St. Benedict (titular saint), the former refectory, the abbey church, the 16th-century cellars where the historical-archaeological collection of the Polironian Civic Museum and the collection of ancient Italian farm carts are displayed, and finally the corridors. In the monastery the Famedio di Matilde di Canossa is still visible, as it was rearranged in the 16th century by Giulio Romano: in the upper part the countess stands out proudly in a portrait on horseback holding a pomegranate, her symbol of wisdom, virtue and power. When she died, in fact, Matilda wanted to be buried in the monastery of Polirone, but in 1632 her body was moved to Rome, to the Vatican, to a monument in St. Peter’s Basilica, designed and created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which still celebrates her today. In the cloister dedicated to St. Simeon frescoes narrate some of the saint’s miracles, such as that of the doe, which offered itself as food to Simeon and two other disciples who were starving and unable to leave the hermitage because of snow, that of the fishbone that St. Simeon removed from the throat of a choking monk, and that of the lion, which became tame at the sight of the saint.

Inside the abbey church are 11th-century mosaics, altarpieces by artists such as Girolamo Bonsignori, Fermo Ghisoni, and Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, and the thirty-two terracotta statues depicting saints made by Antonio Begarelli (Modena, 1499 - 1565). Great artists worked here in the 16th century: in addition to Begarelli and Giulio Romano, Correggio (Antonio Allegri, Correggio, c. 1489 - 1534), one of whose large frescoes is preserved in the refectory of the ancient monastery, and artists of the school of Giulio Romano, to whom we owe the frescoes in the sacristy instead; the cupboards in the latter are by Giovanni Maria Piantavigna, formerly the author of the choir. The decorations, too, were entrusted to the collaborators of Raphael’s pupil, as can be seen from the geometrically shaped ornaments (especially squares and hexagons) in the abbey church, which refer to those in the Camera dei Venti at Palazzo Te in Mantua, and from the coffers in the sacristy, which refer to those in the Loggia delle Muse, also at Palazzo Te. The refectory, i.e., the room where the monks ate and met, was built in about 1478 as an autonomous building; to decorate the entire west wall Gregorio Cortese called two artists in 1510: the Veronese Girolamo Bonsignori (Verona, 1472 - Mantua, 1529) who made theLast Supper in 1514 (now preserved at the Baruffaldi Museum in Badia Polesine and returned to its place of origin only on the occasion of the exhibition The Sixteenth Century in Polirone . From Correggio to Giulio Romano , which was held from September 2019 to January 2020) and the young Correggio, in his early twenties, who executed in fresco between 1513 and 1514 the painted architecture that was to house that Last Supper. (For more, see also Giuseppe Adani’s article on the Polirone Monastery.)

The monastic complex also includes the Chapter House, where archaeological excavations show the tombs of the abbots and the foundations of early medieval buildings, and the Museo Civico Polironiano, which is developed in the rooms on the upper floor of the monastery that originally housed the dormitories. Founded in 1977, it is one of the largest ethnographic museums in Italy, with its approximately 13,000 exhibits. These include the tools of agricultural labor and rural handicrafts, devotional images and objects, graphic and pictorial works created by local artists of the 20th century. Also, a collection of antique puppets and marionettes, an important photographic collection and a specialized library. The aim of the civic museum itinerary is to tell the story of the history and customs of the area with a strong agricultural vocation and the great protagonists of San Benedetto Po throughout the centuries, particularly Matilde di Canossa, the poet Umberto Bellintani and the playwright Ulisse Barbieri.

Scattered in the vicinity of the village are also several Romanesque parish churches called matildic churches celebrating the famous countess: evidence of the Canossa family’s rule since the 11th century.

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For those who love nature, it is possible to bike along the NOBLE SIGNS itinerary. Popular paths and palaces of power in the lands of Gonzaga. Starting from Mantua towards Castiglione delle Stiviere, Sabbioneta or San Benedetto Po, it is possible to cross diverse landscapes where the activity of man harmonizes with the tranquility of nature and the naturalistic wealth surrounding the city of Mantua. Nobili Segni is funded by the Lombardy Region under the Viaggio in Lombardia III edition call, which involves the municipalities of Mantua, as leader, Sabbioneta, San Benedetto Po and Castiglione delle Stiviere. You can travel, also by bicycle, through the Parco della Golena Foce Secchia, which covers an area of 11.43 square kilometers: you can explore the characteristic environments of the Po floodplain through the paths on the banks that flank almost the entire perimeter of the river, for a total of 35 kilometers. It is possible to travel by bicycle, as well as on foot, three thematic itineraries that run through the territory of the Municipality of San Benedetto Po: the Po Trail, the Earth Trail and the Bridges Trail. The first runs along the river between San Benedetto Po and the hamlet of Portiolo; the second among cultivated fields, while the third follows a reclamation canal. Its cycling is included in the itineraries of the Italian Touring Club, among the Mantua itineraries.

Finally, there is no lack of the eno-gastronomic aspect because the whole area is also famous for its good food. Among the typical dishes, in addition to the excellent local cured meats, are pumpkin tortelli seasoned with sausage, tagliatelle with duck ragout (the nedar festival held on the first weekend in October is well known), torta taglietellina, salami cooked under the ashes, risotto alla pilota, and pike in sauce. Confectionery specialties include sbrisolona, noodle cake, chocolate salami, rose cake, and monk’s ring. Parmigiano Reggiano and Lambrusco wine, recognized here with the DOC denomination of controlled origin, are also excellent.

Art, nature and food thus make San Benedetto Po one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, whose thousand-year history is still told through its beauty and treasures.

San Benedetto Po, a thousand-year-old village of Lower Mantua. Art, nature and enogastronomy

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