The Sacra di San Michele, or Sacra di San Michele in Italian, sometimes called the Abbey of Saint -Michel, is a religious complex on Mount Pirchiriano, located on the south side of the Val di Susa overlooking the villages of Avigliana and Chiusa di San Michele , Northern Italy . The abbey , which for much of its history has been under Benedictine rule , is now entrusted to Rosminians. A special regional law recognizes it as the  » symbolic monument of the Piedmont region. » The book The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco was inspired by this monumental abbey.

Little is known of the early years of the abbey of Saint-Michel. The oldest existing account is that of a monk, William, who lived here in the late 11th century and wrote a Chronicon Coenobii Sancti Michaelis Clusa. It sets the foundation of the abbey in 966, but, in another passage, the same monk affirms that construction began under Pope Sylvester II ( 999-1003 ).