The Centro Saint Bénin is located in the historic center of Aosta. Founded around the year one thousand by the Benedictines of the Piedmontese abbey of San Benigno di Fruttuaria, then passed to the canons of the Great St. Bernard since the twelfth century, the priory of Saint-Bénin was transformed into a College of Higher Studies by Pope Clement VIII with a bull of 1597. For more than three centuries, the Collège Saint-Bénin fueled local culture and trained the secular ruling class of the Aosta Valley. According to tradition, it was from the Benedictines of Saint-Benin that Saint Anselm learned the first rudiments of culture and cultivated the vocation that would lead him to the primatial see of Canterbury. Today, the vast chapel of the College, rebuilt from 1676 to 1680 next to the Romanesque bell tower of 1100, is used as a prestigious venue for exhibitions dedicated to national and international modern and contemporary art.