Here we are at the
very foot of the Monte Pirchiriano, for so the mountain is called,
and can see the front of the building--which is none other than the
famous sanctuary of S. Michele, commonly called "della Chiusa,"
from the wall built here by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, to
protect his kingdom from Charlemagne.
The history of the sanctuary is briefly as follows:-
At the close of the tenth century, when Otho III was Emperor of
Germany, a certain Hugh de Montboissier, a noble of Auvergne,
commonly called "Hugh the Unsewn" (lo sdruscito), was commanded by
the Pope to found a monastery in expiation of some grave offence.
He chose for his site the summit of the Monte Pirchiriano in the
valley of Susa, being attracted partly by the fame of a church
already built there by a recluse of Ravenna, Giovanni Vincenzo by
name, and partly by the striking nature of the situation. Hugh de
Montboissier when returning from Rome to France with Isengarde his
wife, would, as a matter of course, pass through the valley of
Susa. The two--perhaps when stopping to dine at S. Ambrogio--would
look up and observe the church founded by Giovanni Vincenzo: they
had got to build a monastery somewhere; it would very likely,
therefore, occur to them that they could not perpetuate their names
better than by choosing this site, which was on a much travelled
road, and on which a fine building would show to advantage.
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