ABBEY OF POMPOSA
The thousand-year old Abbey of Pomposa stands not far from the Mesola Wood, along the ancient Roman road (called the "Via Popillia") that used to link Rimini with Aquileia. The Abbey was founded by Benedictine monks who managed to create a cultural and economic centre of European importance in the midst of this swampy area between the Po of Volano, the Po of Goro, and the sea.
The church was built in the typical structure of the Ravenna-style basilicas with three naves, a Romanic atrium the length of which is covered by decorations made in majolica with patterns inspired by Oriental art, friezes in polychrome terracotta, and allegorical sculptures drawn from Byzantine culture.
Inside the church, a cycle of frescos of the Bolognese school dating from the 14th century tells stories from the Old and New Testaments and the Apocalypse by means of popular images; in the apsidal basin is a representation by Vitale of Bologna of the Christ as pan-creator among angels and saints.
Frescos by the Riminese school, influenced by Giotto, are located in the Chapter Room and inside the canteen, where they tell the story of the miracle of St Guy [San Guido] (the most important of Pomposa's abbots) together with another monk, Guy of Arezzo [Guido d'Arezzo], inventor of the musical stave.
A museum on Pomposa has been set up in the ample Dormitory; here a collection of capitals and objects in marble, majolica, and glass tell the history of the monastery.
The Palace of Reason [Palazzo della Ragione] was once a tribunal but has been readapted many times; it is here in fact that abbots exercised their judicial as well as their religious power.
Finally, a bell-tower built in 1063 with double, triple, and quadruple lancet windows that confer elegance and, above all, lightness to the whole structure.