page_title: Sacra di San Michele
section_title: Art and architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Sacra di San Michele / Art and architecture
caption_attribution_description: Vista della Val di Susa dalla Sacra di San Michele
context_page_description: The Sacra di San Michele, sometimes known as Saint Michael's Abbey, is a religious complex on Mount Pirchiriano, situated on the south side of the Val di Susa in the territory of the municipality of Sant'Ambrogio di Torino, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. The abbey, which for much of its history came under Benedictine rule, is now entrusted to the Rosminians.
  A special regional law acknowledges it as the "Symbolic monument of the Piedmont region".
  This monumental abbey served as one of the inspirations for the book The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.
context_section_description: The church is located atop a rocky crag base and towers above the valley. The church façade leads to a staircase, the Scalone dei Morti ("Stairway of the Dead"), flanked by arches, niches and tombs in which, until recent times, skeletons of dead monks were visible (hence the name). At the top of the 243 steps is the marble Porta dello Zodiaco, a masterwork of 12th century sculpture. The church itself is accessed by a Romanesque portal in grey and green stone, built in the early 11th century. The church has a nave and two aisles, and features elements of both  Gothic and Romanesque architecture. On the left wall is a large fresco portraying the Annunciation (1505), while in the Old Choir is a triptych by Defendente Ferrari.
  The complex includes the ruins of the 12th-15th centuries monastery, which had five floors. It ends with the Torre della Bell'Alda ("Tower of the Beautiful Alda") The so-called "Monks' Sepulchre" is probably the remains of a chapel reproducing, in its octagonal plan, the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
caption: View of Val Susa from Sacra
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