Sant'Orso is the richest monument of medieval Aosta and one of the essential sites of Romanesque art in the Alps. The complex grew around an early Christian burial area and became a collegiate church with its priory, cloister and bell tower. Its most celebrated feature is the cloister, where the capitals carry an extraordinary carved programme — biblical scenes, animals, monsters, episodes from the life of Saint Ursus — a compendium of the Romanesque imagination in a small space. Above the vaults of the nave, raised during a later Gothic remodelling, an earlier fresco cycle survives in the roof space, hidden from view for centuries and now among the most precious in northern Italy. The crypt, the choir stalls and the priory complete the ensemble. Filmed in 4K, with close detail on the carving and the painting, the programme also evokes the great Sant'Orso craft fair that fills the streets of Aosta each winter.
