Torba Abbey

Torba Abbey tickets: which one to buy

The Monastery of Torba stands at the foot of a wooded hill in Gornate Olona, in the province of Varese in Lombardy, northern Italy, about forty kilometres north-west of Milan, and it is owned and run by FAI, the Italian National Trust, which charges a ticket for the visit. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Longobards in Italy, together with the nearby archaeological park of Castelseprio and its church of Santa Maria foris portas, famous for its early medieval frescoes.

The monastery is a small, peaceful complex, with a tower, a church and farm buildings surrounded by meadows and woods, and it is popular with families and walkers from Milan at weekends. A car is the most practical way to get there, and a footpath connects Torba with Castelseprio in about twenty minutes. Visitors often combine the monastery with the Sacro Monte di Varese, another UNESCO site, and the lakes of Varese and Maggiore. FAI organises guided visits, events and seasonal activities, and a small café and shop stand in the grounds. The site is accessible, although the paths in the woods are uneven.

Visiting Torba Abbey: what to see

The site began as a late Roman military outpost, part of the defensive system of the fortified settlement of Castrum Seprio, and the tower was built in the fifth or sixth century to guard the Olona valley. After the arrival of the Lombards, the fortress lost its military role, and in the eighth century a community of Benedictine nuns settled here and adapted the tower for religious use. The tower's upper floors hold the most precious feature of the site: early medieval frescoes from the eighth century, showing a procession of nuns, saints and a figure of Christ, among the rare surviving paintings of the Lombard period.

Other rooms in the tower hold later frescoes and a small burial chamber. The church of Santa Maria, built in the eleventh century and later modified, stands beside the tower, and its crypt can be visited. The nuns left in the fifteenth century, and the complex became a farm, with its buildings used for agriculture for centuries. FAI received the monastery in 1977 and restored it, reopening it to the public. The farm buildings house a restaurant and rooms for events, and the grounds include a vegetable garden and fields. The walls of the ancient castrum can still be traced on the hillside above.

Torba Abbey opening hours and the best time to go

The monastery is open from Wednesday to Sunday for most of the year, with shorter hours in winter, and it closes for a period in January. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for walking between Torba and Castelseprio, and summer is warm but shaded in the woods. FAI's special days, including the spring open days, bring events and crowds. Weekdays are quieter than weekends. Allow about an hour for the monastery, and add an hour or two for the walk to Castelseprio.