At Sesto al Reghena, eight kilometres north of Portogruaro across the regional border in Friuli, stands one of the most important Benedictine abbey complexes in northeastern Italy. Founded in the eighth century in what was then dense forest (silvis = woods), it became a centre of Carolingian learning before being largely destroyed by Hungarian raids in the tenth century and slowly rebuilt over the following centuries.
What survives is remarkable. The abbey church preserves its early-medieval crypt, a complex of Romanesque frescoes including a fourteenth-century Last Judgement, and a profoundly atmospheric vestibule with carved capitals from the eighth and ninth centuries. The whole complex sits in a quiet village square and is open most days for free. For visitors interested in early-medieval art it is one of the better trips of its kind in the region.