Sacra di San Michele: The Hilltop Abbey That Preceded Santiago

Umberto Eco said he thought of The Name of the Rose while gazing at the Sacra di San Michele from the Fréjus motorway. The structure emerging from the rock of Monte Pirchiriano — 962 metres above sea level — with its towers and its body of masonry that seems to grow from the stone itself, is not a castle but a Benedictine abbey founded in 983 and still standing, through vicissitudes, to this day. Yet most Piedmontese know it only as a silhouette from the motorway.

The Stairway of the Dead and the Zodiac

You climb to the Sacra on foot from the village of Sant'Ambrogio di Torino in about an hour along the historic path. The monumental entrance passes through the so-called Stairway of the Dead — an imposing internal staircase carved into the rock — which leads to the Zodiac Portal, a twelfth-century Romanesque doorway with capitals depicting the zodiac signs and the months of the year in a sculptural quality surprising for an Alpine mountain setting.

The View Over the Susa Valley

From the summit terrace the Susa Valley opens in its full length, from Turin to the Franco-Italian Alps. On clear mornings you can see the Monviso to the south and the Rocciamelone to the north at the same time. The abbey is managed by the Rosminians and open all year; admission is 7 euros. In summer visitor numbers rise but never become unmanageable: tourists arrive, admire the facade, climb to the viewpoint and leave within two hours.

How It Fits Into the Territory

The Sacra di San Michele pairs well with a visit to the Museum of Antiquities in Turin or the Orsiera-Rocciavré nature park, which extends behind the abbey. Sant'Ambrogio di Torino has two good trattorias serving tajarin with roast gravy. It is easily reached from Sant'Ambrogio station on the Turin–Modane regional railway line.