Sacra di San Michele, sometimes known as the Abbey of San Michele, a religious complex, built on the mountain Monte Pirchiriano at the entrance to the Val di Susa. The complex is located on the territory of the municipality of Sant Ambrogio di Torino and belongs to the diocese of Susa. For many years, Sacra di San Michele, towering over the villages Avigliana and Chiusa di San Michele, is a symbol of the Italian region of Piedmont.

According to some historical documents, in the era of Ancient Rome on the site of the present Abbey was used as a military Bastion, which controlled the main road which connected Italy with France. Later, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Lombards built a fortress here to protect these lands from the invasion of the Franks.

About the first years of the existence of the Sacra di San Michele, very little is known. The most ancient evidence belongs to a certain monk William, who lived in the Abbey at the end of the 11th century and wrote a treatise on its history. William writes that the Abbey was founded in 966, the year, however, in the same treatise he mentions the date to the reign of Pope Sylvester II (999-1003-th years). It is known that the part of San Michele, which now serves as a crypt, was built in the late 10th century, which is confirmed by niches, columns and arches, made in the Byzantine style. According to the legend, the building was erected as a hermit Giovanni Vincenzo, who was the Archangel Michael. The same legend says that the materials for the construction of the crypt collected by the hermit, in one night miraculously rose to the top of the mountain.

In subsequent years, to the crypt was built another small building that could accommodate the monks and Wanderers. Later, the Abbey became the property of the Benedictine monks and began to actively develop – were built separate buildings for the reception of itinerant pilgrims and the Church, possibly on the site of the Roman Castrum (military Bastion). In the 12th century on the initiative of the Abbot Ermengarde was laid a huge, 26 meters in height, the Foundation from the base of the hill to its top, which housed the new Church, which exists to this day, and other buildings.

In the early 17th-century Sacra di San Michele began to decline, and in 1622, the year was abolished by order of Pope Gregory XV. Until 1835, the year the Abbey was abandoned, until king Charles albert turned to the priest and philosopher Antonio Rosmini with a request to restore it and re-turn to the monastery. And today Sacra di San Michele belongs to the order of rosminians.

The Abbey Church, the construction of which lasted for several years, draws attention to the unusual location of the facade, which is at a lower level than the interior of the temple. With 41 meters in height, the facade leads to the Staircase of the Dead" - the Skalon del morti, framed by arches, niches and graves where up until recently you could see the skeletons of the deceased monks. At the top of the stairs standing Porta dello Zodiaco – a masterpiece of sculpture of the 12th century. In the Church can be accessed through a portal in Romanesque style, made in early 11th-century grey and green stone. Inside the temple are the elements of both Gothic and Romanesque styles. On the left wall is a huge mural depicting the Annunciation, and in choirs – the triptych Defendente Ferrari.

Complex Sacra di San Michele includes the ruins of the monastery 12-15 th centuries, which had five floors. At the end stands the Torre della Belle Alda – the Tower of the Beautiful Alda. And the so-called "Crypt of the monks" probably once been a chapel, which had the shape of an octagon and reproduce the Church of the Holy sepulchre in Jerusalem.