ABBAZIA DI VEZZOLANO

The first document that mentions the church of Santa Maria of Vezzolano dates back to 1095, but the actual building dates back to the end of the 12th century. The canonical complex of Vezzolano, often inappropriately called Abbazia (Abbey), housed religious individuals who followed the rule of Sant’Agostino (St. Augustine),who experienced a long period of splendor between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, followed by a slow decline, which begun in 1405, the year from which the rectory was given in commandery to prelate residents elsewhere. After the expropriation in the Napoleonic era, in 1937 the complex was sold to the State and is currently being delivered to the Polo Museale of Piemonte (Piedmont Museum Complex).

The church with an apse facing east, originally had a plan with three naves, modified in the thirteenth century, when the right nave was turned into the north side of the cloister. The brick salient façade with horizontal bands in sandstone presents a rich sculptural decoration.

Inside there is a jetty (or jubè), decorated with a polychrome bas-relief with two registers depicting the Patriarchi (Patriarchs) and the Storie delle Vergine (Stories of the Virgin), referable to the third decade of the thirteenth century, in addition, on the sides of the central apse window there is a sculpture representing the Annunciation from the late twelfth century.

In the cloister there are sculpted capitals and an important cycle of frescoes dating from the mid-thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including those of the Rivalba chapel by the Maestro of Montiglio (Master of Montiglio) with the Adorazione dei Magi (Adoration of the Wise Men) and the Contrasto dei tre vivi e dei tre morti (Contrast of the three living and the three dead).