San Valeriano, Robbio

A church at the site is documented since the 12th century, when it was part of a Benedictine order Cluniac monastery which stood along the pilgrimage route to Rome, known as the Via Francigena. The monastery suffered much over the centuries; one inscription notes the monastery was destroyed in 1216. Built with brick, the church has three naves and the three apses ends in a typical Romanesque hemicycles. The monastery buildings are no longer extant. There are no remains of a former belltower, which was still present in the 16th century. The church is dedicated to St Valerian, a bishop martyred in Tunisia by Genseric in 460. The relics of this Pre-Schism western saint were putatively brought to Pavia, and then to Robbio. The church was deconsecrated centuries ago, and for a time used as a warehouse or barracks. There is no internal decoration.^[1]