Fontevivo

The stately abbey of Fontevivo has a fascinating effect on the visitor. Its absolute simplicity and its bareness cannot help but move to a silent contemplation. The abbey was founded by will of the Bishop of Parma, Lanfranco, and of the Marquis Guido Pallavicino. The dies natalis of the abbey, the very day of its founding, was 5th may, 1142, when the abbot of Chiaravalle della Colomba decided to settle down in Fontevivo, along with a group of monks. The land owned by the abbey, by the Badia, as it is still called, covered an area of 2,620 hectars; this was a marshland before the white monks stepped in. Legend has it that in this very region the art of the production of Parmesan Cheese was invented. In the first half of the 18th century,when the House of Farnese held the title of Duke of Parma, the abbey was turned into a holiday resort, known as Collegio, for the local aristocracy. The ancient beauty of the Collegio is nowadays restored, and the modern pilgrims of the Via Francigena can have some rest in the hotel and in the restaurant which can now be found in the ancient building. The façade of the abbey is Romanesque, and internal structure is three-aisled. In the right aisle, a Madonna by Benedetto Antelami (13th century). In the left transept, the mausoleum of Ferdinand of Bourbon, Duke of Parma, who died in Fontevivo in 1802. Opposite to the mausoleum, the tomb stone of Marquis Guido Pallavicino, benefactor of the abbey and knight templar. Cacher

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