Lucedio Abbey

The abbey was founded in 1124, when Renier I of Montferrat provided an extensive tract of marsh, heath and woodland known as Locez, on whose agricultural development the future prosperity of Lucedio would depend.

Lucedio contributed in its turn to the expansion of the Cistercian Order by giving birth to three daughter-houses over the next eighty years: Santa Maria di Castagnola Abbey in Chiaravalle (1147) in the Marche, Rivalta Scrivia (1180) near Tortona and Acqualunga (1204) near Pavia.

The Abbey's political ties to the Aleramici of Montferrat were shown in 1202 when its abbot, Peter II, accompanied the Marquess Boniface, grandson of Renier, on the notorious Fourth Crusade.

The abbey managed its agricultural assets employing the grange system and was effective in developing the productivity of the land, notably introducing the cultivation of rice to this damp riverside area in the fifteenth century.

The buildings and their lands have passed through various hands in subsequent years, including those of Napoleon Bonaparte, who gave it to Camillo Borghese in exchange for a large quantity of artworks which are now housed in the Louvre.