The building, which could be compared to a fortified monastery, was built at the request of Marquis Ranieri del Monferrato in 1123 above some Roman ruins. The abbey, which over the years has housed various monastic orders, has a particularly relevant structure from an artistic point of view. The refectory, cloister, mill, and cells are very interesting, even if the most interesting element of the place is the macabre atmosphere fed by the multiple legends about the Cistercian monks who would have built secret and underground areas that still today hold crypts with mummified abbots. In short, a place that had an English traveler of the 13th century say, “la vista di un impiccato appeso ad un albero della palude non guasterebbe certo il paesaggio…” (“the sight of a hanged man swinging from a swamp tree would certainly not ruin the landscape…”).
