Founded in 1120 in the alluvial plain of the stream Orba, Badia
di Tiglieto - whose real name is Abbazia di Santa Maria - was
the first Cistercian abbey built outside the French territory
and represents the most important historical monument of
Tiglieto. The abbey consists of the church, in the north, whose
main axis has a west-east direction; orthogonal to this
building, in the east, there is the monastery, from where the
area already used as a refectory develops. Church, monastery,
and refectory represent the three sides of the cloister; the
fourth side and the adjacent places are formed by other
buildings with agricultural purposes. The Romanesque-style plan
of the building is still evident in the cloister and in the
oratory, while the subsequent measures have changed the other
structures. In the Middle Ages, the "friars of Cîteaux" played
here an important role in the cultural and economic developent:
this is witnessed by the presence of hump-back meadows, made in
this way to make the water flow out, and