Abbazia di Staffarda

The Abbazia di Staffarda is one of the best-preserved Cistercian abbeys in Italy, founded in 1101 on the left bank of the Po river in the Piedmontese province of Cuneo. The complex presents an almost complete Romanesque ensemble: a three-aisled abbey church, cloister, chapter house, and monastic quarters that have survived largely intact since the 12th century. Originally established by Benedictine monks in the Clairvaux tradition, the abbey later passed to the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, which still administers it today. The abbey suffered partial damage during the War of the Grand Alliance in 1690, but was subsequently restored. Open Tuesday through Sunday as a museum, it sits in a quietly rural Po plain landscape well off the main tourist circuit — an unusually serene setting for a monument of this age and architectural completeness.