Badia of Santa Maria in Strada

The abbey was founded in 994 by Bernardino di Mandello Boccadiferro of the Camaldoli's monks. At the beginning of the second millennium the church grew becoming an important spiritual and social point of reference for the monks as well as the whole rural community that was presided by an abbot, that's why it was also called Abbadia or Badia (abbey) of Santa Maria in Strada. 

After 1249 the chiesa, together with the adjacent monastery, was overtaken by the Cistercian monks, becoming a Collegio Montalto's property in 1588. The Collegio was suppressed in 1797 by Napoleon rules and the forfeiture to the Italian kingdom: only the church was left.

This building was completely rebuilt in 1787-88 under the project of the architect Bartolomeo Barilli, keeping some tracks of the past XIV e XV's centuries construction in the portals.

Inside there are some paintings by Cavedoni, Spisanelli and Gessi, as well as some important works of art by the wood carver Gaetano Lipparini.