Fontevivo Abbey

Fontevivo Abbey (Italian: Abbazia di Fontevivo; Latin: Fons Vivus) is a former Cistercian monastery in Fontevivo, Province of Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, about 15 kilometres west of Parma on the Via Emilia towards Fidenza.

In May 1142 a colony of twelve Cistercian monks from the abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba founded a monastery on land given by Bishop Lanfranco of Parma and Delfino, son of Oberto Pallavicino, in a spot named Fontevivo ("living spring") after the spring that rose there on the left bank of the Parola brook.

After clearing and improving the site, which was a well-watered one between the Taro and the Stirone rivers, the Cistercians turned to construction and had soon built a large abbey church and the accompanying conventual buildings. In 1144 Pope Lucius II confirmed to Viviano, the first abbot, possession of the abbey's lands and put it under the immediate protection of the Holy See.

The newly-settled abbey, as a daughter house of Chiaravalle della Colomba, belonged to the filiation of Clairvaux. As early as 1146 Fontevivo was made the mother house of the abbey of San Giusto in Tuscania. (Mirteto Abbey near Pisa may also have been made a daughter house of Fontevivo in 1227).

In 1245 the abbey was occupied and sacked by the army of the Emperor Frederick II during the siege of Parma. By the 15th century its decline was unstoppable, accelerated by the introduction of commendatory abbots early in the century and by the damage caused by the troops of Ludovico il Moro in 1483. In 1497 Fontevivo entered the Italian Cistercian Congregation, but by this time was already fatally compromised.

...
Wikipedia