{"id":993,"date":"2026-07-30T13:10:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medievalsicily.org\/projects\/santa-maria-di-campogrosso\/history-cg\/monastery-history\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:10:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:10:39","slug":"monastery-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/medievalsicily.org\/en\/projects\/santa-maria-di-campogrosso\/history-cg\/monastery-history\/","title":{"rendered":"History of the monastery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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History<\/a> \u00b7 subpage<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History of the monastery<\/h1>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
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The origins of the monastery of Santa Maria di Campogrosso, together with the church attached to it, are known only from a small number of documents. The oldest document to survive, in copies, dates from 1134 and concerns an area granted to the monastery by the King of Sicily, Roger II, for the purpose of establishing a grange (Mongitore 1734, s. 20-21; Brancato i inn. 2011, s. 14-15; Oliva 2008, s. 19).<\/p>\n

According to the sixteenth-century historian Tommaso Fazello, the monastery was built after the defeat of the Saracens at the Battle of Misilmeri (Malaterra 1724, lib. II, 41, s. 50), but before the capture of Palermo, that is, between 1068 and 1072 (Fazello 1558, s. 192-193). The initiator of the construction is said to have been Count Roger. Another Sicilian chronicler, Rocco Pirri, attributed the foundation of the monastery to Roger I’s brother, Robert Guiscard (Pirri 1630, s. 211). Both authors refer to a foundation document that has not survived to the present day.<\/p>\n

We know little about the period during which the monastery was active. The first document known from a copy is a grant of 1134, in which we read that the prior of the monastery at Campogrosso – Micha\u0142 – received from Roger II an area stretching west from the San Michele river as far as the locality of Misilmeri, intended for the establishment of the monastery’s grange (Mongitore 1734, s. 20-22) . Over the following decades the area of economic expansion was extended, which inevitably led to a boundary dispute with the neighbouring monastery of Santa Maria di Ammirato (dell\u2019Ammiraglio) to the west. A dozen or so local residents took part as witnesses in the settlement of this dispute, which took place in 1172-1174, including eight Christians and four Muslims (Garofalo 1835, s. 30-34) . In the end, the monks of Campogrosso had to give up part of the land they had developed. In 1170-1176 the monastery paid a recognitory rent for holding the church of Santa Maria di Ravanusa (Revenosa) to the diocese of Agrigento (White 1938, s. 273). In 1179 the hospital operating, probably, alongside the monastery of Santa Maria di Campogrosso received a grant of the Arab settlement of Ayn-lyen (Mortillaro 1843, 189-190). The end of the twelfth century thus appears to have been a period of prosperity for the monastery.<\/p>\n

The next piece of information does not appear until 60 years later, when the prior of the monastery at Campogrosso was murdered by two fellow brothers and their lay accomplices (Kington 1862, s. 428) . In 1261 another prior, Orlando, leased out a house with a courtyard in Palermo. One of the witnesses to the document was a monk of the same monastery, Jakub of Florence (Mortillaro 1843, s. 417-419) . It is worth noting on this occasion that the two monks of the “Basilian”, that is Greek, monastery probably came from the north, as is shown both by the prior’s name – Orlando – and by the indication of Florence as Jakub’s place of origin.<\/p>\n

In the second half of the thirteenth century, under Angevin rule, a period of decline began for the Italo-Greek (Basilian) monasteries, a considerable number of which grew impoverished, deprived of material support and of an influx of new monks as a result of the intensifying Latinisation of the Sicilian church. This process also affected the monastery at Campogrosso. In the year of the Sicilian Vespers (1282) the entire area around the San Michele river was plundered during the Franco-Spanish fighting. The Aragonese army moored in the nearby port and subsequently camped in the vicinity. Perhaps as a result of these events, not long afterwards, in 1283-4, the movable and immovable goods belonging to the now-deserted monastery were transferred to the archdiocese of Palermo. Brother Cirino was appointed to manage the movable and immovable property of the three monasteries being dissolved: Santa Maria di Ustica, San Onofrio and Santa Maria di Campogrosso (Mongitore 1734, s. 138-139; Mortillaro 1842, s. 326; 1843, s. 428-9) .<\/p>\n

In 1285 Cirino is mentioned for the last time as prior of Campogrosso. By this time the monastery bore the dedication of \u015aw. Micha\u0142a (Mortillaro 1843, s. 233-235) . In 1306 the procurator probably administered only the property of Santa Maria d’Ustica and San Onofrio . In the sixteenth century the church, then called San Michele del Golfo, was an abandoned and sparsely populated place . The royal visitor Francesco Vento mentions in 1542 robbers nesting in the ruins of the church and attacking travellers (Vento 1542, n. 1305, f. 11, cyt. za: Oliva 2008, s. 73, przyp. 37) . He then proposed either demolishing the church or rebuilding it, which would, however, have involved considerable costs. The visitation of 1583, carried out by Franciscus Puteus (Francesco del Pozzo), confirmed that the church remained in ruins. By the visitor’s decision it was decided to deconsecrate and demolish it, and the marble figures it contained were moved to a chapel specially designated for the purpose, dedicated to \u015aw. Micha\u0142a Archanio\u0142a, in the Palermo cathedral (Del Pozzo 1583, n. 1326, f. 653, cyt. za: Oliva 2008, s. 73, przyp. 44) . A further visitor, J.A. de Ciocchis, confirmed in 1741 that the church had been deconsecrated (De Ciocchis 1836, s. 43) . Today we are dealing with the ruins of the building, which have survived, slowly decaying, for almost 500 years since the partial demolition. More than 100 years ago, in 1895, the remains of the church were restored by prof. Giuseppe Patricolo, a well-known Palermo architectural conservator, although the work at that time was, it seems, limited to the emergency consolidation of the ruins . Descriptions and cost estimates of the works, which were carried out over a dozen or so days in December, have survived in the conservation office.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u2190 Powr\u00f3t do History<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History \u00b7 subpage History of the monastery The origins of the monastery of Santa Maria di Campogrosso, together with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":932,"menu_order":52,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-993","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHistory of the monastery - 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