Follina

ABBEY

The splendid Cistercian abbey of Santa Maria di Follina, also known as Sanavalle, was built on a previous Benedictine structure of the twelfth century, following the architectural rules of this order: Latin cross church with facade to the west and apse to the east, rich sculptural elements of symbolic meanings, a cloister wonderfully sculpted in 1268, overlooked by various rooms including the Chapter Hall and the large refectory, now a War Memorial.
Inside the evocative church, valuable works of art are visible including a fresco by Francesco da Milano from 1527 depicting the Virgin and Child, between Sant’Antonio Abate, another saint and the donor, a wooden crucifix from the Baroque age, a fresco depicting St. Thomas Aquinas, attributable to the circle of Tommaso da Modena (14th century) and the venerated sandstone sculpture of the Madonna del Sacro Calice, datable to the 6th century, probably arrived here during the Crusades from distant Nubia; the neo-Gothic wooden ancon that houses it is a faithful copy of the one preserved in the church of San Zaccaria in Venice.

In the neighborhood of the abbey, the source of Santa Scolastica from which the Follina stream originates, sung by the verses of the poet Andrea Zanzotto, the Austro-Hungarian cemetery, dating back to the First World War and the hammer in via Paoletti of ancient origin are also worth a visit.

Chiesa Arcipretale di S.Pietro e Paolo, loc. Valmareno, loc. Valmareno

The building was mentioned for the first time in documents that testify to the donation of Sofia from Colfosco to the Abbey of Follina in 1170, but the current building was erected in the late fifteenth century. and the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Among the works present, we point out the sixteenth-century wooden dossal of the main altar, created by the Ghirlanduzzi of Ceneda; the painting Madonna and Child between Saints Peter and Paul, a work of 1603 by Silvestro Arnosti; the fresco of the Assumption attributed to Agostino Ridolfi and the Madonna and Child with Saints by Francesco Frigimelica (about 1570 – post 1649).