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Bobbio Abbey

An Abbey around which later grew up the town of Bobbio, Italy

Bobbio Abbey (Italian: Abbazia di San Colombano) is a monastery founded by Irish Saint Columbanus in 614, around which later grew up the town of Bobbio, in the province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is dedicated to Saint Columbanus. It was famous as a centre of resistance to Arianism and as one of the greatest libraries in the Middle Ages, and was the original on which the monastery in Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose was based. The abbey was dissolved under the French administration in 1803, although many of the buildings remain in other uses.

The Basilica

The current Basilica of San Colombano (1456-1530) replaced the old edifice in Renaissance times.
A careful examination of the Holy Scriptures written along the central nave of the Basilica ends with an unexpected discovery: there is only one citation which has been – voluntarily – attributed the maximal importance. This sole finding allows interpreting the whole series of Biblical chapters. The sentence is the verse 6.63 from the Gospel of St. John; this verse acquires peculiar nuances if read in relation to the intricate circumstances the Church was going through during the period the Basilica was decorated.
Also the Renaissance frescoes are to be investigated with reference to the verse 6,63 from the Gospel according to St. John. This analysis reveals the complexity of the iconography and theological subjects chosen for the frescos and suggests some interesting questions about their relationship with the theological disputes the Church had to face during the Renaissance.
The Basilica is on the Latin cross plan with a nave and two aisles, a transept and a rectangular apse. It includes a 9th century baptismal font. The nave fresco decoration is by Bernardino Lanzani (16th century). The 15th century crypt houses the sarcophagus of St. Columbanus, by Giovanni dei Patriarchi (1480), and those of the first two abbots, St. Attala and St. Bertulf. Also in the crypt is a 12th century pavement mosaic wit the histories of the Maccabeans and the Cycle of the Months.
The bell Tower (late 9th century) and the smaller apse are from the original Romanesque edifice.
The Torre del Comune (Communal Tower) was built in 1456-1485.
The Museum of the Abbey includes findings and remains from Roman (tombs, altars, sculptures) and Lombards ages (capitals, tombstones). It houses also a polyptych by Bernardino Luini.