Astino Abbey () is a former Roman Catholic

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

in the

Astino Valley The Astino Valley () is a valley in the Italian comune of Bergamo in Lombardy. It is relatively small in size and it is part of the Parco dei Colli di Bergamo Parco dei Colli di Bergamo is a natural park in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy, ...

, in the

Province of Bergamo The province of Bergamo (; ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Bergamo. The province has a population of 1,103,768 (2023), an area of , and contains 242 ''comune, comuni'' (municipali ...

, region of

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It is no longer active as a religious institution. The buildings were renovated in 2015, and since 2004 has been the home of an educational institution focused on design.

History

Astino Abbey was founded around the year 1070 by members of the

Vallumbrosan Order The Vallombrosians (alternately spelled Vallombrosans, Vallumbrosians or Vallumbrosans) are a monastic religious order in the Catholic Church. They are named after the location of their motherhouse founded in Vallombrosa (), situated 30 km ...

. The Romanesque church and the first conventual buildings were built by Bertario, the first abbot, who supervised the abbey for 21 years until 1128. During the second half of the 15th century the Astino Monastery acquired lands from all over the province."Former Monastery of Astino", Turismo Bergamo
/ref> The monastery was suppressed on 4 July 1797 by the civil authorities of Bergamo. Its assets were given to the nearby hospital, founded and previously run by the monks. In 1832 the site was put to use as a psychiatric hospital, which it remained until 1892. It was then used for agricultural purposes, and was sold to private buyers in 1923. In 1973 the property was acquired by a private company for conversion into a golfing centre, but the plan ran into so much opposition that it never came to fruition. After years of neglect, the site was purchased by the "Congregazione della Misericordia Maggiore" in 2007, and the buildings began to a complete renovation in 2013. Since 2024, the property has hosted the

Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) is a postgraduate school and consultancy based in Bergamo, Italy and San Jose, Costa Rica, which focuses on the domain of interaction design. History The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction D ...

, a post-graduate educational organization focused interaction and service design.

Church

The Church of "Santo Sepolcro" (of the

Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Some ...

) was consecrated in 1117, but has been rebuilt over the centuries. The base of the belltower dates to the 12th-century, but now has a baroque superstructure. The building includes a

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

of the 15th century and a chapel to the memory of Blessed Guallo de Roniis, exiled

bishop of Brescia The Diocese of Brescia () is a Latin Church, Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Milan, in Lombardy (Northwestern Italy).Churches in the province of Bergamo 11th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Romanesque architecture in Lombardy Monasteries in Lombardy Christian monasteries established in the 1070s