San Miniato - San Miniato

San Miniato is a municipality in the province of Pisa.

To know

The historic center of the city is located in a strategic position on a hill halfway between Florence is Pisa for which the city was the scene of multiple clashes between the two today's capitals, up to the definitive Florentine conquest. Seat of a diocese, San Miniato is an important economic and industrial center in the leather area of Ponte a Egola and is famous for its white truffles and wine and oil products.

The motto of the city that appears under the municipal coat of arms is: Sic nos in scepter reponis (So ​​you put us back in the kingdom, or even So you return us to the ancient honors).

The medieval old town and the farmhouses in the countryside attract many tourists, especially foreigners.

Geographical notes

The historic core of the town extends over three neighboring hills along the Arno plain, at 140 m a.s.l., with an intact medieval urban layout. The position was particularly happy for the control of the main road and river axes of the area, from the via Francigena to the Pisan-Florentine road and from the Arno to the Elsa. Downstream, on the northwest side of the municipal area, it is located Ponte a Egola (29 m a.s.l.), which represents the industrial part (active in the processing of hides and leather), developed starting from the 1850s. This has allowed a substantial preservation of the historic center, today suited above all as a tourist destination, and of the agricultural lands on the south side, dominated by the cultivation of vines and olives.

Background

The original nucleus of the city dates back to the eighth century: a group of Lombards, according to an original document dated 713 and preserved in the Archiepiscopal Archives in Lucca, he settled on this hill and built a church dedicated to the martyr Miniato. Frederick II of Swabia built the fortress in the city and made his vicar reside there for the Tuscany. For this Germanic origin the city, of Ghibelline tradition, was called throughout the Middle Ages as San Miniato al Tedesco, a name that has remained in use even in the following centuries.

After signing the peace with Florence on 31 December 1370, San Miniato adopted the Florentine calendar to replace the Pisan one and changed its name to San Miniato al Fiorentino, and then simply San Miniato.

In 1622 he obtained the bishopric and therefore the diocese: until then it was in fact part of the diocese of Lucca.

The young Napoleon visited San Miniato twice. The first was to have the certificate of nobility of his family: the Buonapartes of Ajaccio in fact they had distant Samminiatesi origins; the certificate was necessary for Napoleon to access the military academy French. Later he returned there during the Campaign ofItaly, visiting the last survivor of the Tuscan branch of the family, the canon Filippo Buonaparte. A plaque affixed to the Buonaparte palace testifies to the meeting that took place there.

The city remained in the Florentine orbit until 1925, when it was ceded to the province of Pisa.

The Second World War left its mark on the city because of the massacre of the Duomo. A good part of the medieval buildings was also destroyed, including the Rocca di Federico II, promptly rebuilt in the following years.

How to orient yourself

Fractions

The hamlets in the territory of San Miniato are: Balconyvisi, Bucciano, Chain, Cigoli, Armor, Cusignano, Island, La Scala, La Serra, Molino d'Egola, Moriolo, Ponte a Egola, Ponte a Elsa, Roffia, San Donato, San Miniato Basso, San Romano, Stibbio.

Location

There are also numerous inhabited places that make up the municipal area of ​​San Miniato. Among the many we mention: Calenzano, Campriano, Reed thicket, Martana, Montebicchieri, San Quentin is Sant'Angelo a Montorzo.

How to get

How to get around

What see

Religious architectures

• 43.679610.85151 Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and San Genesio (Cathedral of San Miniato). The church was built in the 12th century, perhaps on an older chapel, then became a cathedral in 1622 when San Miniato was elevated to diocesan seat. It is located on the square known as Prato del Duomo, the area of ​​the ancient citadel, which is dominated by the fortress and the tower of Frederick II. It is the oldest part of the city, which brings together the Cathedral, the Bishop's Palace and the Palace of the Imperial Vicars. On July 22, 1944, a US artillery shell penetrated the Church through the semirosone of the southern arm of the transept which exploded in the right aisle causing the death of 55 people. In the lower part of the façade there are three sixteenth-century sandstone portals. Behind the cathedral, an integral part of the apse is the rectangular bell tower; this is also called Torre di Matilda by virtue of a legend, later denied. The interior has a neo-Renaissance architectural development, mainly the result of nineteenth-century works, with decorations in the Baroque style. In the middle of the central nave, on the right, is the marble pulpit by Amalia Dupré which presents bas-reliefs above the parapet. Among the altarpieces stand out the Deposition by Francesco d'Agnolo known as Lo Spillo, brother of Andrea del Sarto (in the chapel to the left of the transept, 1528), theAdoration of the shepherds by Aurelio Lomi (first chapel on the right), the Resurrection of Lazarus by Cosimo Gamberucci (first chapel on the left), il Baptism of Christ by Ottavio Vannini with the collaboration of Orazio Samminiati (chapel of the baptismal font).  

• 43.68006410.8546692 Church of Santi Stefano e Michele. The primitive church is perhaps prior to the year 1000. Originally the building was smaller and it was accessed laterally through an overpass, called Ponticello. In the fourteenth century a hospital was attached to the church run by the regular canons of Sant'Antonio Abate di It came, for those suffering from shingles; testimony of it remains in the Tau, symbol of the friars, walled up on the external side of the church. The current appearance of the building is due to a series of transformations that took place between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the Diocesan Museum some church furnishings are preserved, including a terracotta bust depicting the Redeemer; a wooden tabernacle with the figure of Risen Christ, it's a Saint Francis Xavier in bas-relief, in wood.  

• 43.67786110.8463 Church of the Santissima Annunziata. It was built in 1522 on the site of the oratory of the fourteenth-century Compagnia della Santissima Annunziata which, having built the new church, donated it to the Augustinian friars of the Congregation of Lecceto. The building, all in brick, has an original central apsidal structure with a high octagonal drum that hides the dome. The interior has an aspect that is due to the works carried out between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the Roffia family. When the apse area was enlarged, in 1657, the majestic Gonfolina stone altar was built which frames a late 14th-century frescoed Annunciation, an object of great veneration. On the choir in the counter façade there is the pipe organ, built between 1827 and 1830 by Filippo II Tronci, not working; the exhibition is hidden by a curtain painted with King David citaredo. At the top of the dome a fresco by Anton Domenico Bamberini celebrates theCoronation of the Virgin. To the side of the church, remains of a cloister.  
• 43.63110310.8342044 Church of San Pietro (In the hamlet of Balconyvisi). It was built in the late nineteenth century by the architect Giulio Bernardini who was inspired by the Cathedral of San Miniato. It replaced the ancient church of San Pietro whose remains we see today, built in 1520 "in a place near the ruined church of San Pietro" and consecrated in 1542 with a dedication as well as to San Pietro a San Jacopo, among those that depended on the Parish of San Giovanni Battista a Armor. The evocative ruin, of which the original masonry face with stone blocks can still be appreciated, bears traces of late-sixteenth-century decorations inside, consisting of the imprints of the frescoes torn from the high altar in the 60s of the twentieth century, and a beautiful altar exhibition of the "rocaille" line; there Crucifixion and a deposed Christ are exhibited in the Diocesan Museum. Next to the church is the neo-Gothic bell tower built in 1888 entirely in brick.  

• 43.68088910.8613335 Church of Santa Caterina. Born as a hospital church, it is still adjacent to the town hospital structure. The settlement of the Augustinians dates back to the 13th century; the convent, built in the fourteenth century, was suppressed at the end of the eighteenth century. On the curtain façade, simply plastered and crowned by a pediment decorated with terracotta vases, there are two niches that house an eighteenth-century stone statue depicting Sant'Agnese it's a St. Nicholas in terracotta, later. The current appearance of the interior dates back to the seventeenth century; is a hall with four altars in pietra serena dedicated to saints of the Augustinian order, the main altar with the Marriage of Saint Catherine by Ottavio da Montone, and, on the left side, a large chapel dedicated to the Sacrament. On the left side is the altar of the Divina Pastora, whose cult is dear to the people of the parish.  

• 43.6824610.8148866 Shrine of the Mother of Children (Ancient parish church of San Giovanni Battista) (In the hamlet of Cigoli). We have news of him in ancient manuscripts belonging to the Diocese of Lucca prior to the year one thousand, it was then called "Castrum de CeulisThe sanctuary is also home to the artistic nativity scene of Cigoli. It was founded in the second half of the 13th century by a community of Umiliati friars who chose the highest point of the ancient castle, where a church dedicated to San Michele already stood. The building was enlarged during the sixteenth century and part of the polygonal apse and the fourteenth-century bell tower remain of the original Gothic construction, while the facade is from the nineteenth century. Inside there are traces of fifteenth-century frescoes of the Florentine school and a Gothic tabernacle by Neri di Fioravante, from 1381. Inside the tabernacle there is a high-relief in polychrome wood depicting the Madonna of the Rosary (early 14th century), called The Mother of the children.  

• 43.62743210.8619857 Parish church of San Giovanni Battista (In the hamlet of Armor). It is mentioned in a document from 892, and at the end of the 12th century it was enlarged and modified. The current Latin cross building with a single apsed nave has the façade framed by two corner pilasters and enlivened by the insertion of some marble finds and a fragment of an epigraph from the Roman age. The portal is surmounted by a round arch. On the left side rises the massive bell tower with crenellated crowning. Inside there is a baptismal font, coming from the ancient church of Barbinaia and on the right wall a fifteenth-century fresco, recently restored, depicting the Madonna del Latte, attributed to the school of the painter Cenni di Francesco di ser Cenni.  
• 43.6864910.795238 Church of the Sacred Heart (In the hamlet of Ponte a Egola). The church was built in 1875 at the behest of the people who, until then, depended on two different parishes, those of Cigoli and of Stibbio. The construction of the new place of worship, in addition to defining the identity of the town, represented a moment of aggregation of all local social classes, united on an ideal and financial level in a single enterprise. Inside there are statues made by the San Miniato sculptor Antonio Luigi Gajoni at the beginning of the 20th century, whose works are also preserved in Paris, in the Petit Palais museum. 1996 was the year of a significant restoration that touched the external façade, the bell tower, the roof, all the statues and the high relief terracotta roundels; in addition, a new sculpture was also created for the central "Big Eye" of the façade which represents "The Mother of Earth".  

• 43.65414110.8333439 Church of San Germano (In the hamlet of Moriolo). Moriolo it is a village already mentioned in a document of 786, and was later one of the castles of the municipality of San Miniato. Its church, dedicated to San Germano, in 1260 is among those dependent on the parish church of San Giovanni Battista a Armor. There is a polychrome terracotta relief depicting the Madonna and Child.  
• 43.69318210.84290310 Church of Saints Martino and Stefano (In the hamlet of San Miniato Basso). The church was built in 1780 by order of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, following the suppression of the parishes of San Martino in Faognana and Santo Stefano all'Ontraino.  

• 43.67997210.85233311 Church of the Most Holy Crucifix. The church was built between 1705 and 1718, based on a project by Antonio Maria Ferri, to house a 13th century wooden crucifix believed to be miraculous. The Greek cross building, surmounted by a dome on a drum, rises in the space between the fortress, the cathedral and the town hall, to which the church is connected by a spectacular staircase, with a statue of Risen Christ by Francesco Baratta (1636). While the external decoration is very sober, the internal walls are completely frescoed with Scenes from the life of Christ by Anton Domenico Bamberini. On the main altar, included in a panel painting depicting Risen Christ by Francesco Lanfranchi (1525), there is the tabernacle in which a rare wooden crucifix from the Ottonian era (10th century) is kept. In the pillars of the dome, the nineteenth-century statues of the Four evangelists by Luigi Pampaloni. The pipe organ was built by Domenico Francesco Cacioli and completed by Antonio and Filippo Tronci in 1751 and is located on the choir in the left transept; it has 8 registers on a single manual and pedal and is mechanically driven.  

• 43.67964410.84912512 Church of San Domenico (former Church of Saints Jacopo and Lucia ad foris Portam). It was rebuilt on pre-existing buildings in 1330, but the facade was never completed except for the portal. The interior has a single nave, with side chapels that were closed in the eighteenth century, except for those of the presbytery. Some frescoes stand out, including Stories of St. Dominic, by Anton Domenico Bamberini assisted by eighteenth-century artists from Lucca. At the first altar on the right one Madonna and Child with Saints Ludovico, Bertrando and Rosa, a Florentine artist of the seventeenth century; per second one Madonna and Dominican saints by Francesco Curradi; at the third Madonna and Child with Saint Pius V by Ranieri del Pace. In the presbytery, from the right, there is the Samminiati chapel, with one at the altar Madonna with Child and four hears and four stories in the predella, the work of Domenico di Michelino. On the left the tomb of Giovanni Chellini, built after 1460 and subsequently modified, both in the same century (with the addition of the lower part) and, more drastically, in the eighteenth century; it is attributed to Bernardo Rossellino. The chapel of the Armaleoni follows, with a Saint Lawrence on the external pillar the work of Francesco d'Antonio, e Scenes from the life of Mary, a piece of late fourteenth-century frescoes referable to the area of ​​Niccolò Gerini; at the altar Madonna and Child, saints and patrons, panel of the Botticellian school attributed to the Master of San Miniato; the predella, with five Stories of St. John the Baptist it is older, and refers to Mariotto di Nardo. At the main altar a wooden crucifix from the sixteenth century. The next chapel (main chapel), known as the Spedalinghi, is frescoed by Galileo Chini. In the Grifoni chapel, the sixteenth-century Florentine school panel shows a San Vincenzo Ferrer; there is also one Deposition of Poppi, with the valuable original frame. The tabernacle with the Stories of St. Jacopo it is by the same Gerinian artist of the Armaleoni chapel. Continuing along the left aisle, between the third and second altar, there is a Robbiano tondo with Annunciation by Giovanni della Robbia; to the second altar Archangel Michael by Giovan Battista Galestrucci (1658). Finally, on the counter-façade Musician angels and four saints by Lippo d'Andrea (early 15th century) and a table with the Madonna and Child between Saints John the Baptist and Andrew by Andrea Guidi, a follower of Antoniazzo Romano. Among the other works visible in the church a Sant'Anselmo bishop, from the workshop of Masolino da Panicale e Saint Hyacinth in prayer, by Jacopo Ligozzi.  

• 43.68180610.85447213 Church of San Francesco. The large brick complex was built starting from 1276, expanding a small temple dedicated to the proto-martyr Miniato; from 1343 new rooms were added, the church was raised, the chapels were erected in the presbytery area. The building was renovated again from 1404 to 1480, including the lower church. The façade shows the late Romanesque layout. The back of the church is supported by large arches. At the first altar on the right one Madonna and saints of 1708; per second oneAnnunciation and saints attributed to Francesco Curradi; follows one Beheading of the Baptist signed "Joannes Maria de Reggys", an unknown painter Reggiano, who completed the altarpiece in 1677; and also one Maria Assunta and saints signed "Carolus Ceninus 1674". Other works are a Crucifix wooden statue of the sixteenth century, a wooden statue of Saint Anthony of Padua of 1716, theAssumption of the Virgin attributed to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, the Archangel Michael by Bartolomeo Sprangher.  
• 43.68051110.85902214 Church of San Paolo. It is included in the cloistered monastery of the Clarisse, founded in the fourteenth century by Margherita Portigiani. The church has a Gothic layout with two square bays and cross vaults, frescoed in the early eighteenth century with depictions of theImmaculate is Franciscan saints by Anton Domenico Bamberini. At the three stone altars are commemorative paintings of Franciscan saints; at the high altar la Conversion of St Paul and Saints Peter, Francis and Clare. The church furnishings are completed by the monument to Pietro Bagnoli, who died in 1847 and is buried here. In the monastery there is a sixteenth-century table of the Perugino school with the Crucifix and Saints Paul, Clare and Francis and a big one Christ deposed in colored papier-mâché.  

• 43.63626510.81116315 Church of San Regolo (In the hamlet of Bucciano). It is mentioned in 1260 in the appraisal of the churches from Lucca. It houses a late sixteenth century canvas with the Martyrdom of Saint Regulus, attributable to the Florentine Niccolò Betti. Next to it rises the late nineteenth-century bell tower for whose construction the stones of the ancient parish church of Barbinaia were used. On the façade of the church, in 1922, a commemorative epigraph was installed dedicated to the Fallen of the First World War, coming from the "people" of Bucciano (also including the localities of La Serra, Santa Barbara and Casaccia).  
• 43.69163110.88241716 Chapel of San Genesio. The small chapel recalls the place where the ancient church of San Genesio in Vico Wallari would have risen, mentioned for the first time in a document dated 715. For its strategic position at the confluence of the Arno with the Elsa, and near at the intersection of the via Francigena with the via Pisana, Vico Wallari had an extraordinary importance. Between the eighth and thirteenth centuries it was the seat of political meetings and councils, and hosted emperors, popes and vicars. Its decline began with the development of the castle of San Miniato. In 1216 Frederick II granted it to the Sanminiatesi and fixed the passage of the Pisan road on the ridge, excluding it from the road flow. Having lost its prestigious position, in 1248 it was completely destroyed by the Sanminiatesi.  

• 43.67962610.85238517 Chapel of the Madonna of Loreto (Loretino Oratory), @[email protected]. The building was built in 1285-1295 as a private chapel of the adjacent Palazzo del Popolo. In 1399 a venerated wooden crucifix (Crucifix of Castelvecchio), coming from the parish church of Saints Giusto and Clemente. The construction of the altar fulfilled a vow of the Opera del Duomo for the end of the plague of 1527. In 1718 the crucifix was placed in the sanctuary dedicated to it and replaced by a Madonna of Loreto (with the change of the name of the chapel). Inside is accessed by a small portal surmounted by a terracotta with Christ in mercy. The walls and the vaulted ceiling are decorated with frescoes from the early fifteenth century with Stories from the life of Christ. In the sails there are medallions with Evangelists, King David and the Sibyl of Eritrea. On the east wall there Nativity with the announcement to the shepherds, with a fragmentary one Massacre of the Innocents, Adoration of the Magi is Presentation in the Temple. On the other side: Last Supper, Christ in the garden, Arrest of Christ is Flagellation. The back wall is occupied by a rich sixteenth-century altar of gilded and carved wood, which contained the crucifix. There are represented, in the various boxes: San Miniato with the sword, San Genesio musician, Announcing Angel is Virgin announced, in addition to two Adoring angels. The representations in the sections of the predella are: Martyrdom of San Miniato, Gone to Calvary, Deposition and burial of Christ, Noli me tangere is Martyrdom of San Genesio. These are scenes that complement those of the frescoes, with the exception of the Crucifixion which was represented by wooden sculpture.  

• 43.67796610.8465218 Ex oratory of the Crocetta. The Compagnia della Santissima Annunziata, which had sold its headquarters to the Augustinian fathers of Lecceto, built another oratory, called della Crocetta, opposite. The Compagnia del Riscatto was based here in the seventeenth century, engaged in the liberation of slaves in the hands of the Turks, as could be read on the outside in an inscription that is now almost completely worn. The brothers, linked to the congregation of the Trinitarian Fathers, wore a black cape and had a red and light blue cross on their shoulder from which the name of Crocetta was derived. The building, on the outside in brick, is bare of all furnishings, and today houses an exhibition hall.  

• 43.68013210.85581119 Oratory of Saints Sebastian and Rocco. The small terracotta-clad church was built in 1524, in the area where the Buonaparte family of San Miniato owned a loggia. Probably erected to avert the danger of the plague, it was initially dedicated to Saint Sebastian, protector from contagion; in 1718 a relic of San Rocco was transferred there, invoked in the same circumstances. It was the seat of a company of the Viaticum for the sick. The gabled façade, with a very simple line, has only a portal and a window; the interior with a hall has an eighteenth-century altar, in pietra serena. In the episcopal seminary there are two paintings detached from the oratory that they depict Angels with symbols of the Passion. The interior decoration is completed by a cycle of very damaged paintings, the work of various contemporary San Miniato artists.  

• 43.67665210.84090920 Oratory of Santa Maria al Fortino. The small Gothic oratory, with a very simple structure, is located at the crossroads of the ancient roads towards Volterra is Pisa. It was attached to a hospital for the plague victims, which later disappeared. In the fifteenth century it passed from the patronage of the Municipality to that of the wealthy Chellini family, whose leading figure was the doctor Giovanni, buried in San Domenico, who ordered the altarpiece with theCoronation of the Virgin and saints, now kept at the Museo dell'Arciconfraternita della Misericordia in San Miniato. In place of the altarpiece, on the back wall and on the left side of the presbytery, there are two frescoes by Luciano Guarnieri. The new paintings were set up in the spring of 1969, but were not completed.  

• 43.66100710.80798621 Oratory of Sant'Jacopo in Sant'Albino (Near Molino d'Egola). The Romanesque oratory, not far from the villa of the Palagio dei Samminiati whose coat of arms appears on the facade, depended in the Middle Ages on the parish church of San Saturnino a Fabbrica, documented from the eighth century, of which few remains survive incorporated in a private building. The oratory is now privately owned, and is located in the center of a cultivated plot; inside, the date 1588 recalls a restoration; of particular interest are the late sixteenth-century frescoes of the Florentine area, which they depict Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, i Saints Albino, Iacopo and Maddalena, it's a Christ in Pietà.  

• 43.688110.822722 Abbey of Santa Gonda (In the hamlet of Chain). Dedicated to Saints Bartolomeo and Gioconda, the abbey is mentioned in documents of the thirteenth century as the seat of a community of friars of the congregation of Camaldoli. After centuries of prosperity, it was suppressed by Leo X in 1514 and later became a commendam of the knights of Santo Stefano. Later it was bought by the Salviati of Florence which had near the villa of Castellonchio, and in the nineteenth century all the buildings and farms passed to the hospital of San Giovanni di Dio in Florence, which has owned them up to the present day. The current church, which overlooks the state road, retains traces of its primitive phase, but is presented in forms that date back to the last century.  

• 43.67673810.84454623 Monastery of Santa Chiara. Built in bricks with a warm reddish hue, it was founded in the 14th century, and today it houses the Conservatory of the same name and the Magistral School. The conservatory was established in 1785 at the behest of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, as a girls' school, while the previous monastery of the Poor Clares was transformed into a structure of Franciscan oblates. In 1904, the conservatory became completely secular. The beautiful table of the high altar with theImmaculate Conception surrounded by Adam, Eve, Moses, David, St. Paul and St. John the Baptist is by Jacopo da Empoli. At the right altar there is also one Deposition by Pier Francesco Foschi; on the door to the left of the high altar Saints Francis and Clare, also from Empoli. In the sacristy there are other valuable works: Jesus appears to the Magdalene, attributed to Lodovico Cardi called il Cigoli, a reliquary of the Buonaparte family (17th century) and some valuable embroidered frontals. The convent is enriched by a collection of embroidered textile furnishings, the work of the Poor Clares from the nobility of San Miniato and the mercantile bourgeoisie of Livorno.  

• 43.67980310.85353624 Former monastery of the Holy Trinity (Oratory of Mercy). It was built in the late sixteenth century on the site of the ancient Palazzo del Podestà for the Augustinian nuns; the loggias of that building were incorporated into the new building without however being destroyed. The monastery church today belongs to the Arciconfraternita della Misericordia. After the suppression in 1810, the convent was used for elementary schools and for the gymnasium and high school, where in 1858 the young Giosuè Carducci taught. In the atrium of the school, a large cross vaulted room, late Gothic frescoes with a courtly and heraldic theme were found. The oratory of the Misericordia was created in 1566, but its current layout dates back to the late seventeenth century, when the three stone altars were erected. In the ancona of the main altar there is a fourteenth century Madonna and Child fresco from the Giotto school.  

• 43.67533710.86505825 Convent of the Capuchins (In the hamlet of Calenzano). Founded in 1211, it is one of the few Franciscan convents that boasts a blessing from San Francesco in life who sent the first group of friars to the foundations of a convent, perhaps in the place where an oratory dedicated to San Miniato once stood. Today it is a large complex resulting from numerous expansions carried out over the centuries with a convent rich in art, ancient halls and elegant cloisters. In the refectory there is a large painting by Carlo Bambocci representing the Dinner of San Francesco and Santa Chiara. The one-nave church preserves numerous works of art from the 17th and 18th centuries. On the back of the main altar there is the remarkable wooden choir, finely carved in all its parts, attributed to Giuliano di Baccio D'Agnolo. On the external facade of the church, modified with the expansion of the fourteenth century, the signs of the primitive church are still visible. The church, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and to Saints Francesco and Miniato, is preceded by an elegant portico; the classroom interior has an imposing dark wood altar, typical of Capuchin churches, with a simple line, with a canvas by Rutilio Manetti dedicated to Saints Francesco and Miniato. The complex was once a congress center owned by the Cassa di Risparmio di San Miniato.  

Civil architectures

• 43.679510.852726 Town Hall, Via Vittime del Duomo, 8. Of fourteenth-century origin, it has a modern front, with painted scores. There is a bust of Augusto Conti and two tombstones linked to the memory of the massacre of the Cathedral of San Miniato: one dates back to shortly after the events and basically blames the Germans; one is the result of the most recent historical analyzes and clarifies the responsibilities of the event. Inside, the Council Hall stands out, where Cenni di Francesco frescoed one Madonna and Child between the Cardinal and Theological Virtues. Among the inscriptions and the coats of arms that of Franco Sacchetti stands out, as he recalled in his Three hundred and nine, was mayor of San Miniato. Under the council hall, on the ground floor, there is the Lorentino oratory.  
• 43.67994610.85585927 Buonaparte Palace. The building, as a plaque on the façade recalls, belonged to the canon Filippo Buonaparte, who on 29 June 1797 was visited by his relative course Napoleon, general of the army French in search of its noble origins in Tuscany and in particular precisely in San Miniato. The palace today has a severe front, enriched by an arched portal with a stone ashlar frame and four axes of rectangular windows.  

• 43.67867410.84790428 Formichini Palace (formerly Palazzo Buonaparte-Speziale or Palazzo Buonaparte-Franchini). Built in the 16th century on a project by the Florentine architect Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo, on behalf of Vittorio di Battista Buonaparte, a member of the Buonaparte family of San Miniato. In the following centuries it was radically restructured inside, while leaving the Renaissance style façade unaltered. In the seventeenth century the ownership of the building passed to the Morali family, and in the nineteenth century to the Formighini (or Formichini), to whom the current name of the building is owed. Since the 1950s, Palazzo Formichini has housed the headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio di San Miniato and a precious collection of works of art, in particular paintings, owned by the bank.  

• 43.67864310.84707229 Grifoni Palace, Piazza Grifoni. The building was designed by Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo in severe Florentine forms and built by the mid-sixteenth century. It was badly damaged in the last war, but later restored. It dominates the square from a raised position, such as Palazzo Pitti a Florence, and has a plaster facade, with raised bosses along the sides that give the whole the appearance of a fortress. On the ground floor a large arched portal framed by blocks of pietra serena is flanked by two kneeling windows. Lo stemma familiare in pietra sta appeso sopra il portale (d'oro, al grifone di nero accompagnato in capo da tre palle ordinate fra i quattro pendenti di un lambello di rosso, la palla centrale d'azzurro, caricata di tre gigli d'oro, e le due laterali di rosso). L'ultimo piano è occupato da una loggia continua, oggi chiusa da vetrate, con eleganti colonnine doriche. Sul retro il palazzo dispone di un cortile affacciato sul panorama del Valdarno.  

• 43.67973710.85074630 Palazzo dei Vicari imperiali. Deve il suo nome al fatto che fosse la residenza dei vicari dell'imperatore dei tempi di Federico II in poi, i quali sorvegliavano la rocca e amministravano la città. Qui risiedeva il marchese Bonifacio di Tuscany, per cui si è ipotizzato che sua figlia Matilde di Canossa possa essere nata qui. Il palazzo attuale risale al XII secolo, con la torre merlata preesistente (oggi restaurata). Vi hanno sede una struttura ricettiva e alcuni uffici comunali. All'interno di trovano affrescati alcuni stemmi gentilizi dei suoi antichi abitanti.  

• 43.67951110.85111131 Palazzo Vescovile. La struttura originale è riferibile a due torri del XIII secolo la torre Palleoni e quella dei Capitani del Popolo. Numerosi i rifacimenti nel corso dei secoli: nel 1489 il palazzo fu concesso ai canonici del Duomo di San Miniato e fu edificata la scalinata che lo divide dal Palazzo dei Vicari. Nel 1622 fu adibito a sede della Curia sanminiatese, assumendo in larga parte le forme attuali. Nel 1746 furono abbattute le due torri duecentesche e fu fatto il portale in pietra e le due rampe d'accesso. Nel 1977 l'ultima ristrutturazione che ha definitivamente sancito lo stato attuale. La facciata su piazza della Repubblica, presenta, negli archi a sesto acuto, i resti delle antiche costruzioni duecentesche e trecentesche, mentre quella antistante il Duomo, mostra un aspetto più antico e rustico. La cappella dell'Assunta e di San Giovanni Battista, situata all'interno del palazzo, è completamente affrescata da Anton Domenico Bamberini con l'aiuto della sua bottega.  

• 43.67916610.85147132 Palazzo del Seminario (Seminario vescovile di San Miniato), Piazza della Repubblica. Al momento che San Miniato divenne sede vescovile, venne decisa l'edificazione di un seminario, per la formazione del Clero. In una zona poco distante dal Duomo e dal Palazzo Vescovile, in una zona popolata di case e botteghe addossate alle mura cittadine, nel 1650 venne decisa la costruzione di un piccolo alloggio per 12 chierici. Negli anni si susseguirono gli ampliamenti fino al 1713 anno in cui l'edificio fu ultimato e inaugurato. La facciata a forma poliedrica, ha superficie concava in quanto lo sviluppo dell'edificio è stato vincolato alla cinta muraria. L'affrescatura della facciata con motti religiosi in latino risale al 1705, sempre al XVIII secolo è riferibile la doppia scalinata d'accesso. La facciata concava e decorata esternamente da affreschi e quadrature racchiude scenograficamente la piazza (un tempo chiamata piazza del Seminario, appunto), seguendo l'andamento delle antiche mura del castello di San Miniato. Risalente al 1650-1680, fu realizzato su preesistente, come le botteghe artigiane trecentesche che ancora si vedono al piano terra, tuttora dotate degli sporti su cui gli artigiani disponevano la loro merce. Il fronte fu decorato dal pittore fucecchiese Francesco Chimenti, che vi dipinse, nel primo Settecento, le Virtù accompagnate da trenta motti biblici e patristici dettati dal vescovo Francesco Maria Poggi. All'interno del palazzo, nel refettorio si trova un'Ultima Cena di Dilvo Lotti. Prospetta sulla piazza il lato posteriore del palazzo vescovile.  

Other

• 43.6808710.8529633 Rocca di Federico II, @[email protected]. Torre costruita nel XIII secolo, distrutta durante la Seconda guerra mondiale e ricostruita filologicamente nel 1958. Divenuta simbolo della città, la nuova torre è a pianta leggermente trapezoidale, alta 37 metri e dominante il tratto di Valdarno da una collina di 192 m.s.l. La posizione strategica della torre ha consentito, in epoca medievale, di porre un controllo sul transito tra Florence is Pisa e lungo la via Francigena.  

• 43.69324410.88431834 San Genesio (anche Borgo San Genesio, vico Wallari) (Tra le località Ponte a Elsa is La Scala). Il borgo è stato ritenuto l'insediamento dal quale si è originata a partire dal XIII secolo la città di San Miniato. Per i numerosi e importanti parlamenti, consigli, diete, assemblee e congressi è stata definita "la Roncaglia of Tuscany" ovvero, come la vicina e erede San Miniato, "capitale mancata di Toscana". La zona dove sorge l'attuale area archeologica era un autentico crocevia: oltre che le naturali vie di comunicazione dell'Arno e dell'Elsa, vi passava probabilmente in età romana la via Quinctia, in direttrice est-ovest, alla quale a partire dall'Alto Medioevo si aggiunse anche la via Francigena. Nel V secolo si ergeva sul sito una necropoli tardo-romana, mentre la costruzione della chiesa antica risale all'inizio dell'VIII secolo. Sicuramente l'evento più importante che si tenne a San Genesio fu il giuramento di reciproca solidarietà politica e militare tra le città toscane pronunciato dai delegati delle città di Lucca, Florence, Siena, San Miniato e dal vescovo di Volterra nel 1197. Da quel giuramento, infatti, nascerà la cosiddetta Lega toscana ("societas inter civitates Tuscie"), in difesa della parte guelfa.  

• 43.680510.860335 Accademia degli Euteleti. L'Accademia trova le sue origini nel XVII secolo, quando fu fondata come "Accademia degli Affidati", che si occupava di scienze e lettere. Venne rifondata nel 1748 e ne fu modificato il nome in "Accademia dei Rinati". L'Accademia degli Euteleti fu poii rifondata il 30 dicembre 1822 da Torello Pierazzi, futuro vescovo di San Miniato, e dal poeta Pietro Bagnoli. Gli Euteleti sono degli uomini di buona volontà che perseguono un "buon fine", ed in origine aveva come scopo primario sviluppare e diffondere la cultura Tuscany nel mondo, attraverso il sapere scientifico e gli studi legati allo sviluppo dell'agricoltura e del patrimonio letterario. Da quanto riportato negli "Atti" della società nel 1834 l'Accademia si adoperò per sviluppare un progetto "tipografico" e fondò una scuola infantile. Attualmente l'Accademia degli Euteleti dispone di un ampio archivio e di una vasta biblioteca, dedicando parte delle proprie risorse all'organizzazione di mostre e convegni di interesse scientifico. Lo spazio espositivo è organizzato su tre sale, di una superficie complessiva di 80 m2 circa e i pezzi esposti sono una cinquantina, a rotazione. Una parte del palazzo è occupata dalla Pretura.  
• 43.679710.851636 Museo diocesano d'arte sacra, Piazza Duomo, 1. Inaugurato nel 1966, per opera del pittore samminiatese Dilvo Lotti, negli spazi dell'antica sacrestia, attigua alla cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta e di San Genesio. L'allestimento del museo è stato riorganizzato nel 2000 con l'obiettivo di valorizzare la storia della città e del suo territorio. Il museo conserva opere d'arte e suppellettile liturgica proveniente sia dal duomo, sia da altre chiese del territorio diocesano. Inoltre, sono esposti dipinti del XVII secolo pervenuti dalla donazione (1910) del cardinale Alessandro Sanminiatelli Zabarella alla canonica di Montecastello.  

Events and parties

• Mostra mercato nazionale del tartufo bianco delle colline sanminiatesi. Secondo, terzo e quarto fine settimana di novembre. La principale manifestazione che ha luogo nel Comune e che si svolge nelle principali vie e piazze del capoluogo. 
• Festa del tartufo (A Corazzano). Prima domenica di ottobre. 
• Festa del tartufo e del fungo (A Balconevisi). Terza domenica di ottobre. 
• Festa del tartufo marzuolo (A Cigoli). A marzo. 
• Festa del teatro. A luglio. È il festival di prosa più antico d'Italia. Gestito dalla Fondazione Istituto Dramma Popolare di San Miniato, il festival è attivo ininterrottamente dal 1947. I più grandi attori e registi hanno in tutti questi anni calcato il palcoscenico di San Miniato. 
• La luna è azzurra (Festival internazionale del teatro di figura). A fine giugno. 
• Prima del Teatro (Scuola europea per l'arte dell'attore), ☎ 39 340 9848603, @[email protected]. A luglio. 
• Un castello di suoni. A luglio. A San Miniato e nelle frazioni del Comune, hanno luogo i concerti di un'importante rassegna di musica classica, che da anni porta qui musicisti di fama internazionale, valorizzando anche i giovani esecutori. Durante la manifestazione ogni anno viene proposta al pubblico un'opera lirica. 
• Fuochi di San Giovanni (Presso il prato della Rocca di Federico II). Nella notte del 23 giugno. 
• Festa degli aquiloni (Presso il prato della Rocca di Federico II). Prima domenica dopo Pasqua. 
• Processione della Madonna della Cintola (Dalla chiesa della SS. Anunziata (detta della Nunziatina) fino alle Colline). Prima domenica di settembre. Festa religiosa. 
• Festa del SS. Crocifisso di San Miniato. In estate. Festa religiosa. 

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Shows

• 43.680910.84741 Auditorium di San Martino (Ex chiesa di San Martino a Faognana), Via Cesare Battisti, 63. Si tratta di una chiesa sconsacrata di proprietà comunale, situata in prossimità di Porta Faognana, là dove sorgeva un monastero femminile di regola agostiniana, che nel XVIII secolo passò alla regola domanicana. Oggi rappresenta uno spazio "alternativo e polivalente", utilizzato di volta in volta per mostre, concerti e altre manifestazioni culturali, nonché per eventi e rappresentazioni teatrali, sopperendo così alla mancanza in loco di un vero e proprio spazio teatrale dopo la distruzione, causata dall'ultimo conflitto mondiale, dello storico teatro Verdi.Vi si tengono incontri e convegni, si allestiscono mostre, si svolge la rassegna di teatro amatoriale denominata L'estate di san Martino. Grazie all'intraprendenza del Teatrino dei Fondi di san Domenico, l'auditorium ospita piccoli eventi nel campo della ricerca e della sperimentazione, come quelli realizzati nel 1999 in occasione del festival Il mare della giovinezza.  
• 43.62035610.86922 Teatro di Quaranthana, Via Zara, 58 (Nella frazione di Corazzano). Il nome deriva da quello di un'antica pieve. Qui, nel 1995, il Teatrino dei Fondi ha avviato un cartello di progettualità molto dinamica e variegata, corsi, laboratori, convegni, spettacoli, la casa editrice Titivillus, mostre, biblioteca, produzioni, ospitalità, spazio ragazzi e così via, lungo percorsi di una "teatralità" totale e senza frontiere, polimorfa e multilingue. Nel 2004 è diventato Teatro Comunale. Vanta una sala di quasi 100 posti e una saletta espositiva utilizzabile anche come sede di laboratori.  

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Around

• Castelfiorentino
• Castelfranco di Sotto
• Cerreto Guidi
• Empoli
• Fucecchio
• Montaione
• Montopoli in Val d'Arno
• Palaia
• Santa Croce sull'Arno

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning San Miniato
• Commons contains images or other files on San Miniato

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