Watchful eyes of a bearded saint. Detail from medieval fresco in the cloister at the Abbazia di Piona (Piona Abbey) at Colico, Lombardy, Italy.

---

Abbazia di Piona (Piona Abbey), Colico, Lombardy, Italy: detail of fresco in the cloister, built around 1242, attached to the Chiesa di San Nicola (Church of St Nicholas). Piona Abbey, beside Lake Como, is a former Benedictine monastic complex, once occupied by reformist French Cluniac monks, on the tip of the Olgiasca, a rocky peninsular extending from the eastern shore of the northern arm of the Lago di Como. The monks’ church, dedicated to St Nicholas, replaced a ruined 7th century oratory sometime before 1138. The monastery fell into decline before its buildings and lands were seized and sold off in 1798. The church and cloister were partly restored in the early 20th century and in 1938, the monastery came back to life when the Cistercian monks of Casamari Abbey in Lazio took possession of it. The ancient complex is now open to visitors.

---

Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Abbazia di Piona, Piona Abbey, Colico, Lombardy, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1200s, 13th, abbazia, abbey, ad, ages, almond, almond-shaped, architecture, art, beard, bearded, benedictine, ce, century, chiesa, christian, church, cistercian, cloister, cluniac, colico, como, , di, direct, eyes, face, frame, french, fresco, gaze, italian, italy, kerr, lago, lake, late, lombard, lombardic, lombardy, male, man, mandorla, masculine, mediaeval, medieval, middle, monastery, monastic, monks, nicholas, nicola, painting, piona, pointed, religious, saint, san, shape, st, stare, staring, terence, wall, watch, watchful, watching