ABBAZIA DI FRUTTUARIA

The Benedictine Abbey of Fruttuaria was founded in the early 11th century by Guglielmo da Volpiano. The Abbey bears witness to the historical changes it underwent over the centuries, after a phase of decline around 1400 it was suppressed, and in 1585 it was transformed into a collegiate church. In 1770, Vittorio Amedeo delle Lanze had a large new church built to a design attributed to Bernardo Antonio Vittone, whose layout overlapped the medieval structures. The original building had three short naves cut by a transept onto which five apsidal chapels opened: with the presence of several altars, several monks were able to celebrate the liturgy at the same time. The walls of the transept chapels preserve colourful frescoes with stylised faux marble motifs. The altar of the cross, in a central position, was the fulcrum of the entire religious space and behind it is preserved the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre, dating back to the earliest phases of construction. The paving of the area, consisting of a series of mosaics with geometric and animal motifs placed within squares, came to light in 1979.The discovery of the ancient structures made it possible to grasp the complexity of the system and made it possible to retrace a thousand years of the history of this building: an iron-cement slab was built to divide the upper church, used for worship functions, from the lower one, which can be visited through an educational museum tour. The mosaics of Fruttuaria, of Benedictine origin, are, like those of Santa Giustina di Sezzadio, among the oldest in the Piedmont area. The first king of Italy, Arduino d'Ivrea, retired and died in Fruttuaria in 1015.