San Benedetto Po

San Benedetto Po sits in the flat Po plain, 22 kilometers southeast of Mantova, on what was once an island between the Po and the Lirone rivers. The town has no origin apart from the abbey: in 1007 Tedald of Canossa, grandfather of Matilda, granted half his land between the two rivers to the Benedictines, and the resulting monastery became one of the principal centers of the Gregorian Reform in northern Italy. Matilda herself, the countess who hosted the emperor's penance at Canossa in 1077, was buried within it for five centuries before her remains went to Rome.

The abbey held its position from its founding until the Napoleonic suppression of 1797 emptied the community out, by which time it had grown its church, its three cloisters, its refectory and infirmary. What is left standing today is essentially the monastery's own floor plan with the town arranged around it. A place built entirely by and for a religious institution, still legible as such long after the monks themselves are gone.

From Verona (VRN), about 1 hour by car.

Bologna (BLQ) is about 1 hour away.

By car from the centre of Parma 1h 9m.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Verona, Bologna or Venice?

Coming by train into Modena? San Benedetto Po is about 48 minutes away by road.

Every town within reach of Verona airport.