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Piana’s Monumental Place
an Michele all'Adige has always enjoyed a strategic location along the north/south axis of the Via Claudia Augusta. Historically, it was located at the confluence of the Adige which flows from the Lake of Resia and the Noce which crosses the Sole and Non valleys. However, in the mid 1800s, the Noce stream was diverted and it no longer meets the Adige at San Michele, but at Lavis, to the south.
Because of its position, the fortified monastery which dominated the town of San Michele assumed a strategic importance from its very beginning. Traditionally it has been said that the funds for the original castle were donated by the counts of Appiano in the Tyrol, to the Augustinian friars of Novacella, an abbey near the town of Bressanone. In fact, the seal of San Michele preserves the symbols of the counts of Appiano – a half moon and half a star!
Display in the Museo di San Michele all`Adige
In the oldest part of the complex, with its characteristic triangular cloister lies the most important local ethnographic museum in all Italy – the Museum of the Customs and Costumes of the People of Trent. It has an outstanding collection of giant water machines and is distinguished by the care and attention given to the agro/pastoral life of the people of Trent. Its displays include many artisanal objects designed and constructed to support their mountain life, their religion, their music and their folklore. Written by Daniela Finardi, Communications Director, Museo degli Usi e Costumi della Gente Trentina.
Museo degli Usi e Costumi della Gente Trentina-San Michele all`Adige
Consecrated on September 20, 1145, on Saint Michael's Day, the monastery was the seat of the Augustinian order until late in 1807. The monks were tasked with the care of souls and the collection of tithes in a group of churches in the area. In addition, they owned large plots of land in the adjoining area. In 1807, upon the death of the last provost, the Bavarian government presided over the dissolution of the monastery, which already had undergone plunder by Napoleonic troops. In 1874, the Tyrolean Diet founded an Agriculture School in the buildings of the ex-monastery. It is now the Edmund Mach Foundation of the Provincial Agrarian School, a renowned center for research and education in the fields of agriculture and environmental science.
The church in the center of this complex is one of the finest examples of Baroque art, with stuccoes, gilding and marble artifacts, along with frescoes and paintings of the school of Giuseppe Alberti.
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Museo degli Usi e Costumi della Gente Trentina-San Michele all`Adige