Follina is mentioned for the first time in a document written by a Longobard king (Liutprando) in 739 A.D. It is called there as “Castrum Vallis Mareni”. At any rate, the presence of Mesolithic finds and a part of the Claudia Augusta Altinate Roman route let us think that human settlement was very ancient. In any case, Follina’s importance is due to Benedectine Cistercian monks who settled there in the early Middle Ages. The monks called the area “the healthy valley”. They began to work the wool, an activity still nowadays present in Follina.

The monastery became more important after Guiccellone Da Camino’s and Sofia da Colfosco’s marriage. They gave many lands to the Cistercians, which allowed them to build the abbey that we can admire nowadays. 

When Follina was annexed to the Venetian Republic, in 1388, the Cistercian order was abolished. The abbey became then a “Commenda”, i.e. it was nominally ruled by a bishop or by a cardinal.

120 years later the abbey was runned by Camaldolesi monks (from Toscana), who transformed the church in baroque style.

In 1774 Domenico Bernardi from Follina bought the cloister trasforming it into textile workers’ redidence. The abbey began to deteriorate and became a parish church in 1820. It was restored just in  1915.

CISTERCIAN ABBEY

Period: The Abbey was built between 1305 and 1335, but the cloister is older (1170-1268).

Style:

BASILICA: It is in Romanesque style with some Gothic elements in the façade; the internal is mostly Gothic in the naves and Romanesque in the apse; the bell tower is also in Romanesque style.

CLOISTER: It was finished in 1268 by the abbot Tarino. It is in perfect Romanesque style and is considered one of the most beautiful Cistercian Italian cloisters.