Piona Abbey

Piona Abbey, between monastic life and historical memory

On the eastern shore of Lake Como, in the municipality of Colico, on the Olgiasca peninsula, stands Piona Abbey, as reported consistently by visitcolico.it, quicomo.it, larionews.com and chiesadimilano.it. The official address, according to cistercensi.info, visitcolico.it and quicomo.it, is Via Abbazia di Piona 55, in Colico (LC).

Mass and service times

The three sources dealing with liturgical schedules - cistercensi.info, visitcolico.it and quicomo.it - agree on a clear picture: weekday Mass is celebrated at 7:00 a.m., while on feast days there are three services, at 9:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. There is never a vigil Mass on the eve of feast days. Vespers, according to the same sources, are held at 6:30 p.m.; quicomo.it, in a detail not confirmed elsewhere, notes that they are always sung in Gregorian chant.

On some practical details the sources diverge. Cistercensi.info and visitcolico.it state that the church, cloister and chapter hall can be visited from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., but quicomo.it contradicts this information. The monastery shop's opening hours are also disputed: cistercensi.info reports opening on weekdays from 10:00 to 11:50 a.m. and from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., and on feast days from 3:00 to 5:30 p.m., but the other sources (visitcolico.it and quicomo.it) do not agree on either point. There is also a discrepancy over the phone number: cistercensi.info and quicomo.it give 0341 940331, while visitcolico.it reports a different figure. Cistercensi.info and visitcolico.it do agree, however, that the forecourt and the Grotto of the Madonna can be visited from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

A complex of Lombard Romanesque architecture

Visitcolico.it, quicomo.it and larionews.com describe the abbey as an example of Lombard Romanesque architecture, built - according to quicomo.it and chiesadimilano.it - of exposed, squared local stone, typical of the Comacine art tradition. The church, dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Nicholas according to quicomo.it and chiesadimilano.it, has a single nave, as confirmed by visitcolico.it and chiesadimilano.it. The cloister is described by visitcolico.it and larionews.com as the heart of the entire monastic complex, around which the other buildings are arranged.

Several architectural details are reported by only one source, larionews.com, and should therefore be treated with caution: the entrance door topped by columns bearing statues of Saint Benedict and Saint Bernard, the almost rhomboid structure of the cloister with capitals all different from one another, and the dimensions of the church, less than 30 metres long and about 8 metres wide.

One point of disagreement concerns the frescoes in the apse: larionews.com claims that both their authorship and dating are uncertain, possibly placing them between the 12th and 13th centuries, while chiesadimilano.it does not confirm this uncertainty.

Origins, from the 7th century to the Cistercians

Quicomo.it and larionews.com agree that the earliest historical sources attest, in the 7th century, to the presence of a monastic community at the site, and that Agrippino, Bishop of Como, had an oratory built at Piona. A stone tablet, the Cippo di Agrippino, commemorating this foundation, is still preserved in the complex, and behind the present-day church lie the remains of an older apse, attributable to that very oratory, according to the same two sources.

Larionews.com and chiesadimilano.it further agree that the current buildings - church and cloister - were built by Cluniac monks in the 12th and 13th centuries. Numerous other details about the abbey's medieval and modern history - from the precise dating of the church's consecration in 1138, to the suppression of the abbey in 1798, to the purchase of the building by the entrepreneur Pietro Rocca in 1935 and the dramatic story of his brother Cesare, killed in Ethiopia - come solely from quicomo.it and are not corroborated by other sources.

Visitcolico.it and quicomo.it agree, however, on a key chapter in the abbey's recent history: in 1938 Cistercian monks from Casamari began caring for the abbey, reopening it. The same sources note that the Cistercians follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, based on the balance of ora et labora, and that a monastic community still lives in the abbey today, as also confirmed by chiesadimilano.it.

The bronze door and the monks' daily life

Larionews.com and chiesadimilano.it agree that the church's bronze door is the work of sculptor Giuseppe Abram and dates to 1982; according to larionews.com, the sole source for this detail, the two panels are divided into six scenes depicting the life of Saint Benedict as told in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great.

On the economic and productive side, quicomo.it, larionews.com and chiesadimilano.it agree in describing the monks' work, which includes producing and selling medicinal herbs, cosmetic creams, honey, sweets and liqueurs distilled according to traditional recipes. Chiesadimilano.it adds, without corroboration from other sources, that the proceeds support the monks' subsistence and their missionary work, and describes some members of the community: the prior, identified as Father Andrea, Father Innocenzo as archivist, Father Giacinto, a photography enthusiast, and Brother Pier, devoted to painting.