PIONA. - Ancient abbey in the diocese of Como situated on a promontory almost at the mouth of the Adda.

It was a Cluniac abbey in the 12th century, then passed into commendam. The church was dedicated in 1138 by the bishop of Como, Ardizzone, to the Most Holy Virgin Mary and was therefore called S. Maria di P.; later to St. Nicholas. In the apse there remain traces of frescoes; at the base of the holy water stoup are two lions that formed part of the ancient ambo. Of the original bell tower the base remains, while the upper part is from the 1700s; adjoining is the cloister with a quadriportico and small columns with artistic capitals. It was commissioned between 1252-57 by the prior Bonaccorso da Canova di Gravedona, as is indicated by two inscriptions. Behind the apse there survive the ruins of a pre-existing oratory believed by some to be dedicated to the Most Holy Virgin, by others to the martyr St. Justina. Everything was secularized by the French Revolution with the law of 8 May 1798, with the exception of the church and the cloister, which however were abandoned in 1861 and restored only from 1906 to 1909. Since 1938 Cistercian monks sent from Casamari have resided there.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: A. Kingsley Porter, Lombard Architecture, III, New Haven 1917, pp. 286-89; N. Adami, L'antica abbazia di P., in Vie d'Italia, 32 (1926), pp. 341-45; Cottineau, II, col. 2286.

Mauro Cassoni

@incollection{ec9_piona, author = {Cassoni, Mauro}, title = {Piona}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1554}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/piona} }

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