Pomposa Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in the comune of Codigoro near Ferrara, Italy. It was one of the most important in northern Italy, famous for the Carolingian manuscripts preserved in its rich library, one of the wealthiest of Carolingian repositories and for the Romanesque buildings.
Begun in the late in the late 700's the building was enlarged significantly in the tenth and eleventh centuries, with the addition of the bell tower dating to 1063. The Abbey was at one time the governmental seat for a good portion of Northern Italy, but fell into decline due to an impoverished turn in the local economy and the presence of malaria.
