Pieve di San Lorenzo

BORGO SAN LORENZO – The Pieve of San Lorenzo was built at the end of the 12th century on a former high-middle ages building, of which some remains are visible in the floral and geometrical reliefs on the exterior. The church of San Lorenzo is the largest Romanesque building of the Florentine countryside, created by craftsmen close to those at the time present in the Casentino and Valdarno Superiore areas but from which, however, differ for the use of a more classical language. Outside, the church is dominated by the impressive structure of the belfry, a tall, hexagonal brick building whose specific characteristic, which makes it unique, is to have been built directly above the apse of the church. It was completed by the year 1263 (this particular date is readable on a double lancet-window), and it represents an interesting example of a mid-way architecture between the Romanesque and the Gothic. The four-sloped façade is the result of the purist and neo-medieval restoration following the earthquake of June 1919. The wide interior is constituted by a three nave subdivided by columns with classical capitals on the left side and, predominantly, by pillars on the right side. This is probably the result of a substantial reconstruction dating to the middle of the 13th century, perhaps following a earthquake. This would reasonably explain the presence of the bell tower and the restoration of the right nave. The roof is composed by wooden trusses in plain sight, with the exception of the right aisle, whose vaults date back to the beginning of the 16th century, when the Dominican female monastery of Saint Catherine was founded. The nuns of the monastery kept for a long period of time the patronage of the church as well as the right to appoint its parson. Finally, the large, solemn apse leaves the base of the brick bell tower visible, the weight of which is then discharged, at least in part, on the arc of the apse.

Contacts

Via Cocchi, 4 – Borgo San Lorenzo Telefono:055 845 6940

Works of Art

Unknown Tuscan Sculptor. Bust depicting St. Lawrence

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini. Madonna with child (14th century)

Agnolo Gaddi. Madonna with child on throne and angels (14th century)

Florentine workshop (pertaining to Lawrence Monaco). Shaped and painted cross (14th century)

Tuscan Manufacturing. Baptismal font (16th century)

Unknown Tuscan Painter. Madonna with child (16th century)

Florentine workshop. Tabernacle (16th century)

Tuscan Manufacturing. Portal (15th century)

Cesare Veli. Lamentation on the deceased Christ (16th century)

Tuscan Manufacturing. Sepulchral monument (16th century)

Piero di Cosimo. Madonna with Child between the saints Jacopo and John the Baptist (16th century)

Jacopo Sansovino. Crucifix (16th century)

Francesco Ubertini, also known as “The Bachiacca”. “Saint Sebastian between the Saints Macario (or Romualdo) and Vincent Ferrer” (16th century)

Sebastiano Misuri. Lunette-shaped fresco with “Madonna and child among the saints Domenico, Lorenzo, Antonino and Catherine from Siena” (16th century)

Altar in carved stone (series of eight). (16th century)

Fabrizio Boschi, Matteo Rosselli or Jacopo Vignali. Madonna of the Rosary (17th century)

Jacopo Vignali. The Pentecost (17th century)

Jacopo Vignali. “Saint John Evangelist has the vision of the Immaculate Conception on the Island of Patmos” (17th century)

Matteo Rosselli. “The Virgin and the saints Domenico and Francis interceding with Christ” (The Legend of the three spears) (17th century)

Florentine school. Painting depicting “The saints Anthony Abate and Anthony from padova” (17th century)

Tuscan Manufacturing. Inscripted tombstone (18th century)

Pietro Paolo Colli. St. Michael Archangel (19th century)

Tabernacle of St. Francis. Chini Factory (20th century)

Galileo Chini. St. John the Baptist (20th century)

Galileo Chini. “Christ Pantocrator between the saints Martin and Lawrence” (20th century)

Photos