ABBEY            

History: Santa Maria Abbey was funded in about the first half of the eighteenth century; in 762 it received the donation of three Longobard noblemen, Erfo, Marco and Anto, to which numerous others followed. In 899 it underwent the devasting invasion of a Germanic people called "Ungheri" that destroyed it almost entirely. However between 960 and 965 the abbot Adalberto II began the work of reconstruction and the Abbey increased its power, not only on a religious but also on a civil plane, so that it assumed the appearance of a medieval castle, with its defensive system formed by towers and moats. With the Diploma of 967 Ottone I gave the Abbey to the Patriarchate of Aquileia. Later on, in 1420, it passed under the domination of the Venetian Republic which delivered it to the secular priests, who did not reside there, in 1441.
After the suppression of the Commendam, the properties and the estates of the Abbey were sold by auction. After various events the religious jurisdiction moved to the Diocese of Concordia (1818) and in 1921 the Holy See acknowledged it the new title of "Abbey".

THE ABBEY STRUCTURE

You can enter the square of the Abbey undergoing a robust keep, the only surviving element of the seven which defended the walls. It is called "keep of the drawbridge" and today it is Pro Sesto seat. The massive look-out tower (about 1050) lies in front of them and it has been transformed into a bell-tower; on the left the old abbatial chancellery (today nursery school); on the right the dwelling of the abbots (today Town Hall), a Renaissance construction on whose front are kept the frescoed coat-of-arms of the five commendatory abbots. The entrance and the body of the Abbey are on the left.

THE BASILICA

The main front is the result of modifications occurred during the centuries and it is opened by a simple portal, upon which some frescoes dated between the eleventh and the twelfth century can be admired (Archangel Gabriel, within lunette; Saint Benedict) under a three-mullioned window; on the left a small loggia, frescoed on its inside walls with a Chivalry Scene  and an Investiture, and on its outside walls with Saint Christopher, Madonna with Child and Saint Peter and Saint Baptist; on the right a balustrated staircase of the fourteenth century leads to the main room, once nocturnal choir for the monks, today used for cultural events.
Crossing the main door you can enter the vestibule, which was enterily frescoed (on the walls the allegorical cycle of Hell on the left, of Heaven on the right, and of Saint Michael on the inside wall) in about 1450, and which is ascribed to Antonio from Florence and to his students. The vestibule leads to the Audience Room  today a kind of picture-gallery.You can notice the fourteenth century fresco with the Meeting between the three Living and the three Dead, one of the best examples of medieval representations about death.
The inside of the church presents remarkable frescoed decorations, the most important is the symbolic scene of the mystic tree, the Lignum Vitae.In the CRYPT, which stretches under the presbytery and it is charachterized by cross vaults built on small marble pillars, are kept Saint Anastasia'a Urn, which is a wonderful monument of the Longobard period and which is formed by the remains of a Greek marble chair; the Vesperbild, which is the sandstone Pietà of the fifteenth century that can be ascribed to a German master; the Annunciation of the beginning of the fourteenth century, with the angel and the Vergin Mary inscribed within a niche that is opened on two trilobate arches.

THE ABBOT’S RESIDENCE (present-day Town-hall)

The abbot’s residence was  built on the eastern side of the court, creating a continuous line with the small two-storey loggia and the door providing access to the church vestibule. It dates back to the late 12^th century or early 13^th century; and has been enlarged in the course of centuries. The present-day town hall has the look that was given it in the 17^th century , concluding the restoration of the abbot’s old residence, once probably a series of communicating buildings.The work carried out in the 17^th century merged the buildings into a compact block , reminiscent of a Venetian villa. Four coats of arms commissioned between the 17^th and the 18^th centuries by the commendatory abbots are located on the sides of the two superimposed rows of windows. 

THE BELL TOWER

Measuring 7.7  metres on the side and 33.6  metres high, the brick tower dominates with its mass the surrounding buildings. It was probably raised in the 11^th-12^th century, following Venetian examples. A later date, however, cannot be excluded: between the end of the 13^th century and the beginning of the 14^th. The present bell clock dates from 1914.

THE CHANCERY PALACE

 The brick structure is located near the bell tower, to the west of the court in front of the church and the abbot’s residence, but oriented more to the north towards the area where the monastery was once located. It dates back to between the end of 12^th century and the beginning of the 13^th. Over the years, it has undergone abuse, remodelling and restoration, making it quite difficult to recognize the original plan. The palace must have been seat of the secular institutions that faced the religious one, the abbot’s residence. Here the prisons found place, too.