Carlo Tosco, Politecnico, Turin (Italie)
San Michele della Chiusa was founded in the Susa Valley, the main link between Italy and France, at the end of the 10th century. The monastery was born, according to tradition, for a miraculous event: the apparition of the archangel Michael on the top of the mountain. In the monastic community it was very clear the awareness of being part of a network of monasteries consecrated to the cult of the archangel, and the Chronica monasterii Sancti Michaelis Clusini explicitly recalls the link with the sanctuary of Gargano and with Mont-Saint-Michel. In the sacred geography of the monks there were therefore three Michaelic poles in Christian Europe, located in Puglia, Piedmont and Normandy. The construction of the abbey becomes an extraordinary event for the difficulties of the site, located on top of the mountain: a marvel of the archangel, in the frame of the alpine landscape.