Abbey S. Nazzaro Sesia
This rare example of fortified abbey is very charming, surrounded by rice-fields and situated by a ford on River Sesia, situated at the border between the Province of Novara and the Province of Vercelli. Rebuilt on several occasions given the strategic importance of the place, it preserves buildings of the 11th and of the 15th C., among which remnants of a building that has not been identified with certainty yet and a wonderful façade decorated with terracotta tiles, a real masterpiece. Inside the church are frescoes of the 15th C., while in the cloister remain parts of a fresco dedicated to St. Benedict of Norcia’s life, who was considered the father of the western monasticism. It is one of the most complete cycles about his life, also if it was damaged when the abbey was converted into a country house.