The Convent of Torba, Gornate Olona

The enormous structure in Torba, which lies at the foot of the archaeological park of Castelseprio, dates back to between the 5th and 6th centuries, when the tower was built and used as a Roman military outpost of the nearby camp. Torba kept its defence function, and remained an administrative centre, under the Goths and the Byzantines, and in the Longobard period, was home to a community of Benedictine nuns. As evidence of this significant transformation, one can admire the wonderful frescoes of religious subjects that decorate the inside of the Tower, which were painted in the late 8th century when the nuns reused the building as an oratory and burial ground, and later, built the church and the adjacent convent. Finally abandoned by the nuns in 1482, the convent was later used as a rural farmstead until, after a long period of decline, it was donated to the FAI (the Italian Environment Fund) in 1977 and, once the necessary restoration and rehabilitation work was complete, it was opened to the public in 1986.