The monumental complex of the Church and Monastery of the Holy Sepulcher, a very ancient Vallombrosian coenoby founded in 1107, is located in the pleasant Astino Valley.
The church is consecrated a decade after the congregation was founded, in 1117.
An initial expansion takes place with the construction of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher (1500) and, from about 1540 until the end of the century, the church was renovated and renewed in decoration thanks to cycles of frescoes executed by painters Cristoforo Baschenis the Oldo and Giovan Battista Guarinoni, works now partly recovered thanks to a recent restoration.
New furnishings and structures, such as the sacristy, bell tower and the current deep chancel, were also made during this period so that they would meet the dictates of the Council of Trent.
Decorative updates and improvements continued throughout the seventeenth century, and in the early eighteenth century the need for adaptation to late Baroque taste led to the commissioning of more frescoes, elaborate stucco work and canvases.
Among the artists who worked in the church were. Joseph Brina, Bernardo Sanz, Antonio Cifrondi e Andrea Pelli.
With the second half of the 18th century began the decline of the Vallombrosian order, culminating in the Napoleonic suppression in 1797.
The building stopped having religious functions and, in the years 1832-1892, was converted into an asylum, becoming subsidiary of the Major Hospital of Bergamo.
It was later a subsidiary church of the parish of Longuelo, but the sale of the church and monastery to private individuals (1923) severely limited its public use, encouraging its abandonment and decay.
We have to wait until 2007 to see the complex begin a process of rebirth: in that year, in fact, it was purchased by the Congregation of the Misericordia Maggiore, which returned the former Astino monastery and its church to both religious worship and public use.
Architecturally speaking, the church of the Holy Sepulcher has a distinctive commissa cross structure (plan with a single nave ending in the transept), modified by the addition of a deep chancel during the Renaissance.
Inside you find not one but three altars: the high altar, in a slightly elevated position, then thealtar of St. Martin e that of the Evangelists, both predating 1140.