I was going through the Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle part of which is supposedly a UNESCO World Heritage site. However, I thought I have gone through the entire monastery and I still haven’t seen any of this place. My hunch was that the part which was boarded up in the modern looking church was the place since I can’t see any part of it. I suddenly ended up outside the walls of the cemetery and went back in right after. I thought that was the end of the tour since I knew that path outside the walls of the monastery leads back to the village square I was at earlier. When I continued on the path inside the monastery, the lady at the desk then told me to go through this door which I didn’t really notice at first since I thought I was already done. I guess that explains why there needs to be someone there since it was very obvious that the door was part of the tour.

The door leads to, surprise, surprise, the real Lombard Temple in all its glory. I am not sure why this was called a temple since it looks like a chapel to me. Then again, is there really a difference since they are both places of worship. Part of the temple are beautiful preserved and they serve as one of the best examples of Lombard art and architecture in Italy. This is why this was included in the UNESCO World Heritage listing under the name Longobards in Italy, Actually, this isn’t the only one which is under the listing, there are currently seven, but this one in Cividale del Friuli is considered to be the most important one.

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