Symbolic Architecture Analysis of San Galgano Abbey Apse
could symbolically indicate a principle or a metaphysical reality of transcendent character, conversely the elongated form of the single window suggests a principle individuated in a character. Another interpretive principle that can guide us in the analysis of the geometric composition of the apse is that by which what is positioned above is hierarchically superior to what is positioned below. Therefore, keeping these interpretive principles in mind, we come to analyze the apse of San Galgano. The Apse is symbolically formed by four reading planes containing four series of hierarchically arranged symbols. At the top of all there is a small rose window, placed at the center of the upper part formed in the shape of a triangle. Below this small rose window there is another larger one, followed by three single windows, followed in hierarchical order by three other single windows. The hole at the top and center represents God as he is in himself, the hidden and inaccessible God of whom Saint Bernard says: "Absolute God is transcendent and no one has ever seen him [...] He dwells in inaccessible light, and his peace surpasses all understanding, and his wisdom has no boundaries and his greatness has no limits, nor can a man see him and live. Not that he is distant from each one who gives being to all, without whom all things are nothing, but, what is more wonderful, nothing is more present than him and nothing more incomprehensible. For what indeed is more present to everyone than his being? And yet what is more incomprehensible to everyone than the being of all?" Saint Bernard, Sermon VIII. Below, as a manifestation of the divine Essence there is the central Rose Window, the Divine Unitrinity, always transcendent but revealed. This divine Trinity manifests itself in the Old Testament in the form of three Angels, identified by tradition as Michael, Gabriel and Raphael and who come to visit Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre. In correspondence with these three windows there are another 3 at the lower order that represent the manifestation of this same trinity in the New Testament represented by John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. The Abbey of San Galgano, like all Cistercian abbeys moreover, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and on the day of the Annunciation, that is March 25, the Sun at dawn passes perfectly through the central window illuminating the altar. The central single window therefore represents Christ, sun of Justice, while the other two identify Mary and John the Baptist: "And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, because you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation in the remission of their sins, thanks to the merciful goodness of our God, by which a rising sun will come to visit us from above, to illuminate those who are in darkness and in the shadow of death, and direct our steps on the way of peace." The arrangement of the windows and the luminous phenomenon that occurs therefore illustrates the idea hidden by the construction in line with the thought of Galgano and Saint Bernard: the celebration of the return of Christ for the Parousia, that is the work for the advent of the Kingdom of God in which Christ would return, always accompanied by the Virgin and preceded by John the Baptist.