The bell tower and the frescoes
In the flat, silent countryside of the Po Delta, near Codigoro, where the land was once an island among marshes and branches of the river, the Abbey of Pomposa rises with its slender bell tower visible from kilometres away. Founded by Benedictine monks around the seventh to eighth century, it became in the eleventh century one of the most important monasteries in Italy, a centre of culture with a rich library, visited by emperors, popes and scholars. In the following centuries, the change in the course of the Po and the spread of malaria made the area unhealthy, and the monks gradually abandoned it.
The bell tower, built in 1063 by the architect Deusdedit, is about 48 metres high, in Romanesque style, with nine floors and windows that become larger and more numerous towards the top, to lighten the structure. The basilica of Santa Maria, preceded by an elegant atrium decorated with terracotta, majolica and sculptures, preserves inside a splendid mosaic floor and a great cycle of fourteenth century frescoes of the Bolognese school, perhaps also by Vitale da Bologna, with stories of the Old and New Testament, the Apocalypse and a grandiose Last Judgement. The complex also includes the chapter house, the refectory and the Palazzo della Ragione. Here, in the eleventh century, the monk Guido d'Arezzo developed the system of musical notation on lines, the ancestor of the modern staff, revolutionising the teaching of music.
Tip: combine Pomposa with Comacchio and a boat trip in the Po Delta park; in summer, the abbey hosts concerts.
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