The abbey of Santa Maria Assunta di Maguzzano stands at less than a kilometre from the banks of Lake Garda, in the municipality of Lonato (BS), on a flat area of the morainal amphitheatre, along the road which led from Verona to Brescia. Its presence here is attested by three cippi from the abbey, two published in the Carta Archaeologica, whilst the third is still unpublished. The first mention of an abbatiola Magonziani appears in a decree of bishop Raterius of Verona, dated around 966 (PL 136, col. 547-550), where it states that the abbey was founded by a private individual, mentioned as the constructor, however without stating when. What is known of other privately founded churches suggests a date between the 7th-9th century. A terminus ante quem is provided by a number of elements of liturgical furnishings datable to the 8th-9th century, found during the 1961-1962 excavations inside the church reconstructed in Renaissance style.

In February 2005 during work to lay piping and drains, a number of trenches less than one metre long and of the same depth, were dug in the main cloister and along the west, south and east sides. An interesting stratigraphy emerged in the cloister which suggested the setting up of a pluriennial research project. This took the form of four excavation campaigns which covered circa 500 m2 out of the cloister garden’s total of 900 m2. Due to the presence of the network of service piping and a number of trees it was not possible to undertake an open area excavation. A georadar survey was also conducted across the entire garden area, including the unexcavated north-western area, of the cloister portico and in a number of rooms on the western side (the only area where the buried deposit was not destroyed by the construction of the Renaissance cellars). The survey completed the outline of the plan relating to the sequence of buildings from the site’s diverse occupation phases.

The excavation exposed a complex sequence running from the early medieval to modern period. No traces of earlier stratigraphy was found, although it must have existed in the area given the finds of Roman date that were recovered in later levels.

On the basis of the building typology, the finds and the C14 dating, the earliest phases documented by the excavation date to the 7th century and relate to a settlement built of perishable materials whose exact size and layout are unknown. Between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th century a building with several rooms was built around a central open space. The walls were stone bonded with clay, with a plaster facing and the floor surfaces of beaten earth. This was a residential building probably belonging to a farm where perhaps the first cult site was constructed on the initiative of the owner. Later, in the 9th century, this was flanked by a church built in the south-western area of the present cloister. In the 9th century a cemetery came into being on the north side of the church. This was a cemetery for the lay aristocracy which gravitated around this church, as revealed by an inscription found inside one of the tombs. The monastery grew during the following centuries and the number of buildings, characterised by better construction techniques and mortar floors, increased.

The reconstruction of the cloister in 1492 redrew the monastery’s topography, destroying the original early medieval church and the adjacent structures.