Abbazia Sacra di San Michele

The Abbey of Saint Michael (this picture and the following courtesy of the Google Image Search)

Day 2 had us back on the bus on the way to Torino. The highlight of the day was a trip to the Abbazia Sacra di San Michele. The stunning location and beauty of the church overcame any issues I had with the fact that all tours are being held in Italian. My Italian isn't good enough yet to be able to understand what's going on so I just look and then go the internet to get the real details. I can get about every fifth word but it's mostly nouns right now but the verbs are harder. Adjectives and Adverbs? Forget about it. So, everything I write about here, I learned from the Abbbzia's website.

Here's why I had to pilfer pictures off the web. The weather in Northern Italy's Po River valley in the late fall and early winter is dreary and fog filled.

The Abbey on this high point, about 30 kilometers from the French/Italian border was erected in erected in the 10th Century and inhabited by Benedictine monks through the 1600's.


 

 

This statue of San Michele stands at the entrance of the Abbey. San Michele was the archangel of good, who defeated evil.

Who remembers flying buttresses?!?! Here they are. These exterior struts allowed buildings to be with thinner walls and also to be built taller to allow additional light to enter.

This Latin inscription was laid sideways as a Christian jab at Paganism's decline.

These ruins are from the battles of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1836 the fathers of the Rosmini Order were allowed to take over the Abbey. Although they no longer reside here, they still are the ones who "inhabit" it.

Today, after much generosity from the public and the fact that the Piemonte region considers the Abbey their symbol, the Abbey is undergoing extensive safety and upgrades for accessibility.