Abbazia di Fruttuaria (San Benigno Canavese)

Abbeys and churches

Abbazia di Fruttuaria (San Benigno Canavese)

Category: Abbeys and churches

The abbey was founded in 1003 by the Benedictine Guglielmo da Volpiano. Dedicated to Santa Maria, San Benigno e tutti i santi (San Benigno and All Saints) it has three short naves crossed by a transept with five apsidal chapels. The model is the French Abbey of Cluny which allowed more monks, at the same time, to celebrate the liturgy from a position pulled back from the main altar. The Abbazia (Abbey) di Fruttuaria also conserves the remains of the circular monument built in memory of Santo Sepolcro of Jerusalem, which Constantine had constructed round the tomb of Christ, dug out of the rock, during the 4th century. The chapel’s transept walls have decorations and frescos in fake colored marble. During restoration work, the remains of the original Romanesque church came to light, the most important elements of which are the refined mosaics with black and white tesseras from the 11th century depicting symbolic animals with ornamental geometric motifs and foils. In 2007, recuperation of the 18th century cloister rising out of the earlier cloister structure from the Benedictine Abbazia was inaugurated and represents the hinge of the entire religious complex.

Information

Piazza Cardinale delle Lanze - 10080 San Benigno Canavese (To)
Tel. +39.011.9880487