“The Abbey of Santa Maria di Chiaravalle in Fiastra was founded by the friars of the homonymous church in Milan.The church is a model of the transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture. It is built using the stones taken from the ancient Roman city of Urbs Salvia. The entrance to the abbey church faces west and the apse is east-facing. The east side of the church borders the north side of the adjacent cloister, set in its turn among a series of buildings which completed the monastery: the chapterhouse, auditorium, dormitory, scriptorium and refectory.”