After the middle ages, Europe moves on to a new phase, one of movement and artistic and cultural growth. Genoa is immediately distinguished as a meeting place of East and West, a fact well demonstrated by the capitals from the cloister of the demolished church of San Tommaso, which bear a mixture of figures of Western and Eastern tradition, as well as marble from quarries in the eastern Mediterranean , and the two important stucco slabs from the Abbey of San Fruttuoso di Capodimonte, made by finely skilled oriental artisans with imported techniques and materials.