{"id":11774,"date":"2019-07-31T19:30:38","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T17:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terredipisa.it\/?post_type=attrazione&p=11774"},"modified":"2023-07-20T11:26:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T09:26:12","slug":"volterra-badia-camaldolese-and-the-balze","status":"publish","type":"attrazione","link":"https:\/\/www.terredipisa.it\/en\/attrazione\/volterra-badia-camaldolese-and-the-balze\/","title":{"rendered":"Volterra | The Camaldolese Abbey"},"content":{"rendered":"

In addition to its monuments and numerous testimonies of art and history, Volterra offers a marvellous panorama of the hilly landscape<\/strong> that surrounds it, abruptly interrupted by the view of the Balze Volterrane,<\/strong> a natural phenomenon of erosion that led to the destruction of the largest Etruscan necropolis and the ruin of the Camaldolese Abbey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It is a religious complex<\/strong> of the 11th century, although the current structure dates back to the 16th century and was designed by the architect Leon Battista Alberti<\/strong>, on which famous painters and artists worked. Noteworthy are the frescoes<\/strong> in the refectory depicting episodes from the life of San Giusto.<\/p>\n

Only a few tombs have been found in the strips of land intact around the Camaldolese Abbey and near the Guerruccia plain<\/strong> at the western end of the town. A large section of the Etruscan walls, together with many houses, also disappeared in a sudden landslide in the early 19th century.<\/p>\n

The monastery, abandoned in the last century due to the gradual approach of the Balze chasm, was long neglected and recently reopened for guided tours in summer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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