Piona Benedictine Monastery is located at the feet of Mounts Legnone and Legnoncino, on the Ogliasca Hillside, by the shores of Lake Como. The first record of this religious complex dates back to the VIIth d.C., with testimonies about the Cippo di Agrippino (Agrippino’s Stone), a pristine religious monastery, probably a hermitage. The Cippo is named after the Bishop of Como, who had an oratory built in 617 in honour of S. Giustina martyr. Towards the end of the XIth century Piona Abbey was involved in the Cluniac Reform which had the friars move from their main monastery in Cluny to the peripheral abbeys, which were going through hard times, in order to give them new strength. The 1906 restoration intervention brought to light an epigraphical inscription which has made scholars think that in 1138, after joining the Cluniac reform, the church was consecrated to Holy Virgin Mary. The church was also entitled to a second patron saint, S. Nicola di Bari, though the date of this dedication remains uncertain.