The Abbey of Sant'Albino is a church-monastery complex, founded in the 5th century in Mortara,

Province of Pavia The province of Pavia () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is Pavia. , the province has a population of 548,722 inhabitants and an area of ; the town of Pavia has a population of 72,205. History T ...

, region of

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, Italy.

History

In 774 the abbot Alkwin Albin added a canonical college to the church, which had become a stopping place for pilgrims traveling south to Rome. Initially, the church was called Sant'Eusebio, then Albino after its bishop ''Albino Secondo'' The church of Sant'Eusebio had putatively been founded by

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

to bury the soldiers of his army who died locally in a battle on October 12, 773. Among the casualties there were also two paladins of Charlemagne's, Amelius of Alvernia and Amicus from Beyre. The church has been refurbished over the centuries, and the architecture is eclectic, mingling the original Romanesque style, clearly recognizable in the hemicircular apse, with the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style, to be found in the facade and in the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

. Against the southern side of the portico of the facade, is a building, perhaps a part of the ancient monastery. Beside the church, there are the ruins of the cloister, a brick open gallery with wooden

architraves In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, of ...

and with a 14th-century Gothic window decorated with rural motives. In the interior, on the right wall, are three frescoes (1410) painted by

Giovanni da Milano Giovanni da Milano (Giovanni di Jacopo di Guido da Caversaccio) was an Italian painter, known to be active in Florence and Rome between 1346 and 1369. His style is, like many Florentine painters of the time, considered to be derivative of Giotto ...

depicting ''St Anthony Abbott'', the ''Baptism of Jesus'', and an ''Enthroned Virgin with Donor and Saints Albin, Jacob, and Augustine''. Another fresco, by an unknown 15th-century painter depicts ''St Laurentius'' with the symbol of his martyrdom in his hand. Next to this fresco are graffiti carved in the bricks by the pilgrims over the ages: the most ancient is from the year 1100. Another anonymous fresco is on the left part of the presbytery and represents ''Virgin with Child and Saints''.La patria; geografia dell' Italia: Provincia di Milano
by Gustavo Chiesi, Luigi Borsari, Giuseppe Isidoro Arneudo, (1894): page 173.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albino Mortara Churches in the province of Pavia Monasteries in Lombardy Gothic architecture in Piedmont Renaissance architecture in Piedmont 8th-century churches in Italy