VEZZOLANO. — Abbey of Canons Regular of St. Augustine, dedicated to Mary Most Holy, in the diocese of Casale (Piedmont), in territory formerly belonging to the diocese of Vercelli.
A legend attributes the foundation of the abbey to the sudden apparition at the site of three skeletons to Charlemagne during a hunt. The abbey, founded in the 11th century, was completed in 1189, in the time of Frederick Barbarossa and Provost Vibone, as indicated by an inscription in Leonine verse. The church, originally with three naves divided by pillars, was later reduced to two, because the southern minor nave was sacrificed for the construction of the cloister. At the height of the third pillar, extending across the entire width of the nave, a large lectorium with five decorated arches was constructed, with steps leading up to it like a pulpit. The Romanesque-style façade has two portals: on the larger one are sculpted St. Gregory the Great, an angel, and a deacon, while in the imposts of the arch are the symbols of the Evangelists Mark and Luke. Above this portal are three galleries; in the second, within a mullioned window, are statues of two angels and St. Peter; above is the head of the Savior. On the high altar is a relief panel representing the Madonna and Child and a monk presenting the Emperor Charlemagne to St. Augustine. To the right of the apse one enters the quadrangular cloister, with octagonal pillars on two sides, cylindrical pillars on the third, and mullioned windows on the fourth. The walls bear fourteenth-century frescoes, including the Redeemer in Majesty, the Madonna and Child, the four Doctors of the Church, the Epiphany, and the episode of the apparition of the three skeletons to Charlemagne, together with sculptures representing, in the lower zone, 35 patriarchs of the lineage of David and, in the upper zone, episodes from the life of the Madonna. The abbey was suppressed in 1797. Recently the monument was isolated by removing the buildings that had been attached to it on the south, and the church and cloister were restored.