The abbey church of Santa Maria is the centrepiece of Pomposa and the reason most people make the trip out to the delta. It was begun in the eighth century, expanded through the eleventh and is one of the finest examples of early Romanesque architecture in northern Italy. The west front is a beautifully proportioned screen of small arches and inset majolica plates, very Byzantine in feel — a reminder that this stretch of coast was for centuries under the cultural pull of Ravenna and Constantinople rather than Rome.
The interior is a single rush of frescoes. The walls and apse were decorated in the 1350s by Bolognese painters working in the style of Vitale da Bologna, with Old and New Testament scenes, a Last Judgement on the entrance wall and an apocalypse cycle that fills the apse. The mosaic floor underfoot is older still, from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, mixing geometric motifs with imaginary beasts. Admission is a few euros and includes the museum and chapter house. Allow at least an hour.