The Name of the Rose: In Search of the Abbey

Eco's novel opens in late November 1327, when Franciscan William of Baskerville and his novice Adso arrive at a Benedictine abbey in northern Italy for a theological disputation. The abbey is invented, but its setting was inspired by Saint Michael's Abbey in the Susa Valley, Piedmont. The Sacra crowns a rocky crag above the valley; visitors climb the 243-step Stairway of the Dead to reach the marble Zodiac Door. The film was first meant to be shot here too, but the producers judged it too costly.

Location precision: The novel's abbey is fictional and unnamed; the Sacra is only one of the places that inspired it.

Visitor guidance: The Stairway of the Dead leads up to the church.

As William and Adso reach the abbey gate, Adso stops to describe the church portal, a carved vision of the Apocalypse. Readers have long recognised it: his description is that of the portal of the church at Moissac in southern France. The real tympanum depicts the Apocalypse of the Book of Revelation. The doorway was built under abbots Hunaud de Gavarret and Ansquitil.

Location precision: Eco borrowed one portal for an invented abbey in Italy; the pin marks the real church at Moissac.

Visitor guidance: The portal is on the abbey church in Moissac.

The heart of the story is the aedificium, a fortified tower with a kitchen and refectory below, a scriptorium above and, on top, a library that only the librarian may enter. The library is a labyrinth of fifty-six rooms, each with a verse from Revelation. The tower was almost certainly inspired by Castel del Monte, the octagonal castle in Apulia. The film borrowed that octagonal shape for its library.

Location precision: Eco's aedificium is invented; Castel del Monte is its most likely model, not a location of the novel.

Visitor guidance: The castle stands on a hill near Andria in Apulia.

Day after day William and Adso return to the scriptorium, where manuscripts are read and copied and the catalogue of the library is kept. For the abbey's scriptorium Eco kept in mind the library and the whole abbey of St. Gall in Switzerland. That abbey, whose library was expanded in the 9th century, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Location precision: The scriptorium is one of several models Eco mentioned; the pin marks the abbey precinct in St. Gallen.

Visitor guidance: The abbey precinct is in the centre of St. Gallen.

Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1986 film did not use a real abbey for its exteriors. The monastery was built as a replica on a hilltop outside Rome, the biggest exterior set in Europe since Cleopatra; Eco confirmed it stood at Fiano Romano. Shooting ran from 11 November 1985 to 10 March 1986. This is the set that burns at the end, when Jorge knocks over a candle and the blaze engulfs the library.

Location precision: The set was built on a hilltop near Rome; the pin marks Fiano Romano, not the exact hill.

Most of the film's interiors were shot at Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau, in the winter of 1985/86. In the story the library is one of the greatest in Christendom, full of works by Aristotle. The real abbey, founded in 1136 by Bernard of Clairvaux, is a Cistercian house whose lay brothers' dormitory, over 80 metres long, is the largest Romanesque secular room in Europe.

Visitor guidance: The public areas can be seen daily, with or without a guided tour.

The film ends in the open country of Abruzzo. Peasants free the girl and throw Gui's wagon off a cliff; William and Adso take the road. These final scenes were shot in a valley between Rocca Calascio and Santo Stefano di Sessanio. Rocca Calascio itself, at about 1,460 metres the highest fortress in the Apennines, stands nearby. Years later the old Adso says he never learned the girl's name.

Location precision: The exact stretch of valley is not named; the pin marks Rocca Calascio, which overlooks it.