ABBAZIA DI VEZZOLANO

The first document that mentions Saint Mary of Vezzolano dates back to 1095, even though the current building is the result of a reconstruction of the end of the 12th century. The canonical complex – often incorrectly referred to as an “abbey” – housed religious figures who followed the Rule of Saint Augustine and experienced a period of great prosperity between the 12th and 13th centuries.

From 1405 began a slow decline: the rectory was granted in commendam to non-resident prelates, gradually losing its original role. During the Napoleonic era, the complex was expropriated and, in 1937, passed to the state. Today it is entrusted to the Piedmont Museum Complex.

The church, with its apse facing east, originally had a three-nave plan; in the 13th century, the right aisle was transformed into the north side of the cloister. The salient façade, made of brick and horizontal sandstone bands, is embellished with intricate sculptural decoration.

Inside, there is an extraordinary jetty (or jubé), decorated with a polychrome bas-relief in two registers depicting the Dormition of the Virgin and the Genealogy of Christ, dating back to the 1220s. On either side of the central window of the apse, there is also a sculpture from the last quarter of the 12th century depicting the’Annunciation.

The cloister It houses carved capitals and an important cycle of frescoes painted between the mid-13th and 14th centuries. Among these, those of the Rivalba Chapel, work of Master of Montiglio, with the’Adoration of the Magi and the Contrast between the three living and the three dead.

The Vezzolano complex is the centrepiece of the Romanesque Network of Collina (RRC), an area extraordinarily rich in Romanesque architecture dating from the 10th to the 14th century. The following municipalities are members of the network:
Albugnano (Saint Mary of Vezzolano, Saint Peter), Andezeno (St George), Brusasco (St. Peter's), Castelnuovo Don Bosco (Saint Eusebius), Cavagnolo (Holy Faith), Cerreto d'Asti (Saint Andrew), Cortazzone (San Secondo), Marentino (Saint Mary), Mombello d'Asti (St. Lawrence), Montafia (St George, St Martin), Montiglio (St. Lawrence), Tonengo (Saint Michael).