Agence évènementielle, Milan, Italie  

The enchantment and mystery of passing time - ever different, yet ever eternal and transcendental - transforms a monastery into a place for meditation and introspection. It is the enchantment of the Cervara, expressed as a dynamic balance between the sacred and the mundane.

The Cervara dates back to the summer of 1361, when the first stone was laid for a new monastery to be dedicated to San Girolamo. The designers of the project and its first residents were Benedictine monks, who were responsible for the great prestige the monastery reached in all of Europe over the centuries to come. There is recorded evidence of the visits of Francesco Petrarca, Saint Catherine of Siena, and Popes Gregory XI (1376), Urban VI and Pius VII, as well as don John of Austria (the famous leader who defeated the Turks at Lepanto in 1574), scholar Alessandro Piccolomini and scientist Guglielmo Marconi. The most detailed records describe the incarceration of King Francis I of France, who was defeated by Charles V of Spain at Pavia in 1525. The King was imprisoned in the tower-prison (where you can enjoy a splendid view of the Gulf of Tigullio) rising steeply from the beach.