[3] According to Jacopo (or Giacomo) Malvezzi, the foundation of the monastery would derive, not from the discovery of lion statues, but from a dream, which occurred to Desiderius near Leno during a hunting trip, in which his future coronation as king of the Lombards was foretold.

The abbots were bestowed with numerous royal and papal concessions that increased the prestige of the Lenese monastery during the Middle Ages and made it an important cultural, economic, religious and, for the surrounding municipalities, political center.

With the introduction of the commendation in 1479, a second period of the monastery's existence began, characterized by the new type of jurisdiction of the commendatory abbots, but which nonetheless saw the continuation of the downward spiral that would stop only in 1783, the year of the demolition of the monastic complex.

[7] The Abbey of Leno would have sprung up on the site of the town of the same name, which had begun to be established thanks mainly to the building of a parish church, dedicated to the Baptist;[8] the construction work ended shortly after the accession to the throne of Desiderius (758), who, in addition to attending the inauguration ceremony in the company of his consort and a large group of bishops, provided it with a substantial real estate patrimony, which included property scattered throughout eastern Lombardy,[9] on Lake Como and 58 towns or fiefdoms (including San Martino dall'Argine) located in the Brescia, Cremona, Milan and Mantua areas.

[11] In 774, upon the collapse of Lombard hegemony in Italy at the hands of the Franks, the monastery experienced moments of concern over the demise of the founding monarch, but it was soon realized that the foreign king, Charlemagne, as defender of Christianity had every interest in preserving the integrity of the monastic entities, so much so that he granted the abbots of Leno control over the court, now Mantuan, of Sabbioneta.

[17] In the 10th century, marked by the repeated incursions of the Hungarians into Italy, the monks of Leno ensured that the area around the abbey was fortified with palisades and towers and girdled the curtis of Gottolengo.

[23] In 999 the first papal bull, that of Sylvester II, was issued, granting the monastery the regime of libertas, already established in previous royal and imperial provisions, enriched the possessions by including the court of Panzano, and confirmed the abbot's right to appeal to any bishop, thus avoiding recourse to the Brescian diocese for the consecration of the chrism and monks.

[25] Five years later Abbot Odone incorporated the reformed rules of the Cluniacs, who were also spreading in the Brescian area at that time,[26] as evidenced by the building of the Abbey of Rodengo-Saiano in the middle of the century.

[27][28] In 1078 Pope Gregory VII forbade any layman to take possession of the monastery and administer the lands without the abbot's permission, and also confirmed the fiscal and religious privileges and prerogatives of the brethren.

[34] Meanwhile, the fragmentation of the abbatial dominatus gradually began to materialize with the transmission of administrative power over a variety of conspicuous properties in the north to numerous feudal lords;[36] the first communal entities that were becoming established around the monastery, including Gottolengo, Gambara, Ghedi (1196),[37] as well as Leno itself,[38] were instead making their first claims for autonomy from the abbey's jurisdiction.

[40] It is a judicial deposition of Montenario, canon of the abbey in those years, reported in Dell'antichissima badia di Leno published in 1767 by Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, of which, however, the original has not survived.

"[41]It can be deduced from the testimony how, for the community of Leno, it was considered an affront to call the abbey a "parish church", on the strength of its independence from the diocese constantly confirmed by popes and emperors.

[42] The 12th century ended with the rectorate of Gonterio, a man trusted by the emperor, who carried out a total reconstruction of the abbey church in an attempt to reaffirm the prestige of the Order in Leno.

[49][50] This was followed by the long abbacy of Andrea di Taconia, from Prague and chaplain to Charles IV, who held the fortunes of the abbey by balancing himself through various hardships in an attempt to at least maintain its prestige and dignity.

[60] Testifying to the poor state of the monastery are the directives issued by Charles Borromeo following the apostolic visitation that occurred in March 1580, which required the floor to be levelled, the tabernacle to be maintained, a crucifix to be provided, and the church to be painted.

[62] In particular, Angelo Maria Querini, who held the position of commendatory abbot in the first half of the 18th century, limited himself only to receiving the income derived from the monastery (about 260 gold florins) and, while the Queriniana Library was being set up in Brescia on his initiative, he did not care at all to safeguard the copious Lenese archives and let the abbey buildings fall into ruin.

[66] The now former monastery was purchased, along with the land on which it stood, by the Dossi family, who asked and obtained permission from the Venetian government to proceed with the demolition of the abbey buildings: the site became a strip quarry for work on the construction of the new St. Peter's Parish Church.

The existence of this primitive building has been confirmed by archaeological excavations, which, in addition to uncovering its foundations later incorporated in Gonterio's 12th-century reconstruction, led to the discovery of a burial ground with painted crosses dated to the 8th–9th centuries.

The abbot's intervention took the form of a simple doubling to the west of the Wenzeslao church, which increased its length by about 28 meters, set on a single nave, ending in a wide apse with a raised chancel, where baptism was perhaps administered, and a crypt below provided with an altar.

The crypt consisted of four small naves, punctuated by 15 slender columns and provided both with an entrance that put it in direct communication with the outside and with masonry seats in the apsidal hemicycle that suggested the existence of a choir for the friars.

[84] With the building of the second church was also erected, on its southern perimeter side, a massive bell tower that hinted at the plebeian connotations of the monastery, supporting the thesis of the existence of a baptistery.

In the last section, the presbytery was also greatly elevated, and in the space below it opened a large crypt, probably intended for the veneration of the relics of St. Benedict and Saints Vitalis and Martialis,[86] and still existing in the second half of the 16th century.

[86][35] The rest of the abbey complex can be reconstructed on the basis of a map in the State Archives of Venice dating from the late eighteenth century, perhaps from shortly before the demolition, which illustrates in plan form the various rooms.

[87] Also in the sixteenth century, a palace with service facilities and new cells for the monks had then been inaugurated by the commendatory abbot Girolamo Martinengo to the south of the abbey church, which still exists today as a building for housing purposes known by the name Badia Vecchia.

[94] Deforestation made Leno a focal point for the timber trade throughout the district; the land obtained by logging became either new arable fields or pastures for sheep and cattle, but substantial areas of woodland were maintained since these were of enormous economic importance for activities such as hunting or pig farming, which required large quantities of acorns.

[97] There were in fact monks who devoted themselves to transcribing codices in the scriptorium, instructing oblates, caring for the sick and strangers in the xenodochium and hospital, and artisan friars such as blacksmiths, shoemakers, carpenters, or cooks.

[98] As an imperial monastery, the abbots had important tasks in the public order on behalf of the ruler, a commitment rewarded by the emperor himself who ensured the security and quiet of the monastic complex.

[100] The monastic community of Leno and its dependencies offered shelter to the poor and pilgrims, a fact that is reflected in the existence of a large, two-story guesthouse that hosted, moreover, a judicial assembly presided over by Frederick Barbarossa in 1185.

[68][105] In addition to the structures that emerged during the archaeological excavations carried out on the abbey site, a group consisting of about a hundred fragments of various kinds, mostly stone and from the original plastic and architectural decoration of the monastic buildings, has survived.

Among the most historically, artistically and documentarily significant pieces are the remains of the abbey church portal, some funerary inscriptions, a lunette worked in bas-relief, and two Madonnas with Child in stucco, but of uncertain provenance.