San Salvatore, Brescia

San Salvatore (or, for most of its existence, Santa Giulia) is a former monastery in Brescia, Lombardy, northern Italy, now turned into a museum.

The monastic complex is famous for the diversity of its architecture which includes Roman remains and significant pre-Romanesque, Romanesque and Renaissance buildings.

[1] The monastery is traditionally considered the place where Desiderata, wife of Charlemagne and daughter of the Lombard King Desiderius, spent her exile after the annulment of her marriage in 771.

San Salvatore was founded in 753 by Desiderius, future king of the Lombards, and his wife Ansa, as a female monastery, his daughter Anselperga becoming the first abbess.

After the Lombard defeat by Charlemagne, San Salvatore maintained its privileges as a royal institution and enlarged its possessions.