Praglia Abbey

Monk is the one who looks only to God, desires only God, dedicates himself only to God, chooses to serve only God and, living in peace with God, becomes the author of peace for others

(Theodore Studita)

The Praglia Abbey is a Benedictine monastery located in the Paduan countryside, at the foot of Mount Lonzina (Euganean Hills) in the municipality of Teolo and near Abano Terme. It currently houses the National Library, which is an Italian national monument.

It is currently governed by the abbot Dom Stefano Visintin and the community has 49 monks. The abbey church of Santa Maria Assunta was elevated by Pope Pius XII in February 1954 to the dignity of a minor basilica.

Its history is highly contrasted: it was founded in 1080 by the Maltraverso for the Benedictine order and was originally known with the name of Pratalia and for a long time fundamental for the agricultural management of the Paduan countryside. In 1124 it was aggregated to the Benedictine monastery of Polirone and became autonomous in 1304.

In 1412 it became a commendatory abbey, while in 1448 it passed under the jurisdiction of the abbey basilica of Santa Giustina and adhered to the Benedictine monastic reform.

Ora et labora, opus Dei and opus manuum.

Also for Praglia, manual work in the past was mainly that of the fields, where the monks invested resources and inventiveness, both in reclamation works in general, and in introducing and intensifying specific crops such as vines in the agricultural landscape of the Euganean hills.

The entire abbey was rebuilt starting in 1469 and in 1490 the Benedictines added the "church of the Assumption", built to a design by Tullio Lombardo (then radically transformed by Andrea Moroni).

In 1810 the abbey was suppressed.

The Napoleonic suppression determined the transfer of the "Polyptych of Praglia" by the Renaissance painters Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini to the Pinacoteca di Brera.

The abbey was restored in 1834 by Francesco I, emperor of Austria; again suppressed in 1867 and returned to the Benedictines in 1904.