Romanesque, in my experience, is a style that has one of the widest popular appeals of the various styles of Christian liturgical architecture. It is a sober on the one hand, but on the other it is weighty and imbued with a Roman gravitas. In many ways, many styles that came after it borrow from it in one form or another which may also explain its broad appeal.
Frequently Romanesque structures also include significant amounts of accumulated medieval ornamentation such as frescoes and ornamental stone works and today's example, the Abbey of Pomposa located in the north of Italy, is no exception. This particular abbey was founded in the seventh century and is considered one of the most important abbeys in Italy. 
As is usual with the Romanesque however, it is the interior where the focus really lay and it follows a classic basilica model with its triple nave, open-trussed timber ceiling, semi-circular apse and nave columns. The sanctuary is also raised, a not uncommon feature of this type of architecture, coming with reference to the tradition of placing the altar over a confessio containing a relic-shrine of a martyr, a model especially popularized by Old St. Peter's under St. Gregory the Great.
The abbey was regrettably suppressed in the year 1653 by Pope Innocent X before finally passing into the care of the Italian state in the nineteenth century. Pope Paul VI granted the bishops of the region the honorific title of the "abbot of Pomposa" in 1965.
The exterior of the basilica presents a typical Romanesque form, including the beautiful and impressively tall eleventh century bell-tower.
Found on the facade are various beautiful ornamental carvings which include a cross and a peacock amongst other designs.
The main apse contains a beautiful image depicting Christ enthroned, surrounded by angels and varoius saints. As we look back toward the narthex, one will see how richly decorated the entire abbey church is with its cycle of frescoes containing various scenes taken from the Old and New Testaments as well as the Book of Revelation. On the rear wall is an depiction of the Last Judgement.
While the temptation is to "look up" not to be missed in the church is the absolutely stunning opus sectile floor work that dates from the sixth through twelfth centuries. It includes abstract geometrical designs as well as vegetal and animal motifs.
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