Cloister of Piona Abbey (Abbazia di Piona)

The Piona Abbey or Piona Priory is an Italian abbey located on the Lecco shore of Lake Como, in the territory of the municipality of Colico. The abbey stands on the tip of the peninsula called Olgiasca which, extending into Lake Como, forms a characteristic inlet. The architecture of the abbey complex is part of the so-called Lombard Romanesque with transalpine influences. In some details there are ideas that make one think of French Gothic of Cluniac inspiration, which is likely given the relationship with the parent company, Cluny. The church, with a single nave ending in an apse with a frescoed barrel roof, is approximately 20 meters long and approximately 8 meters wide, which makes it a small and intimate building, however suitable for a small monastic community. The current building is the result of an extension, by lengthening, of a previous church whose consecration, as we have seen, dates back to 1138, at the hands of the bishop of Como Ardizzone I; the examination of the architectural characteristics of the new addition suggests the 12th century for its construction. In particular, the church would have been extended towards the west, thus incorporating and raising an atrium which introduced the façade of the original building. The current façade still bears the signs of a construction carried out in two distinct construction phases, with the upper part built in a later period than the lower one. The stained glass window in the single-lancet window, installed in 1997, is the work of Alberto Ceppi. The geometry of the nave is slightly irregular rectangular with the added part not perfectly in line with the axis of the original perimeter walls. Inside the nave there are two late Romanesque style lions. The lions, which were once part of a pulpit, support two stoups. The church today has a square bell tower which was rebuilt at the end of the 18th century following the collapse of the previous bell tower which was octagonal in shape, on a square base, like the one found in Santa Maria del Tiglio in Gravedona; the location of the bell tower was also different, it was on the opposite side of the church and the collapse occurred due to the steep slope of the land, as can be seen in the Cenacle of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The bell tower of the Last Supper, with a typically Larian landscape behind it, has a steep slope, is octagonal and is not set against the façade as in Gravedona but on the external side wall of the church. This presence in the Last Supper is due to the link between Leonardo and some members of the Birago family who held the command of the Priory of Piona.

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