Ancient churches and abbeys. Montalbano, a crossroads for pilgrims.

The history of Carmignano is not only made of Etruscans, wars and sieges. In fact friars, monks and ancient pilgrims are involved as well. In our journey through the colours of the Pratese Montalbano the bright red of a battle gives way to less garish shades that suggest meditation. The most significant “pievi” and churches date back to the Middle Ages. They were located in areas that represented the crossroads for travellers and pilgrims and even today each one has a special appeal: first of all the San Giusto Abbey, in its sober and imposing Romanesque style.
Surrounded by the luxuriant vegetation of holm oaks, turkey oaks and pine trees at the foot of the Pietramarina peak in the heart of the eastern Montalbano, 408 metres above sea level. It was built by monks belonging to the Brunone da Cluny order between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Having become over time a safe haven for those who ventured along those inaccessible and risky trails, populated at the time by wild beasts and bandits, the abbey (now a national monument) was the reference point for many travellers, like the nearby hermitages of Sant’Alluccio and San Baronto. It is said that a bell, called “la Sperduta”, by tolling at sunset in winter, to guide travellers who had got lost. Another legend (like all legends as a matter of fact quite unlikely) also says that the three French hermit monks who were engaged in the construction of the three refuges, although far more than a dozen kilometres as the crow flies, would pass each other the trowel to wall up stone by stone. Likewise also the church of San Martino in Campo, which is, by a few metres, in the urban district of Capraia and Limite, stands on what was one of the main road links between the Montalbano and the lower area of Montelupo, and Empoli. The dirt road that leads to San Giusto can still be travelled.
The church was built around the middle of the eleventh century by the Benedictines. One hundred years later it collapsed and was almost completely rebuilt. Over the centuries, when it passed to the order of Vallombrosiani and then to that of the Agostiniani, it underwent other substantial structural changes. Another particularly impressive church, a genuine Romanesque gemstone in which was acknowledged the involvement of workers from Lombardy active in Tuscany, is the parish church of San Leonardo in Artimino. The original plan, which has not undergone substantial modifications, is admirable in all its monumentality. The church was probably built in the tenth century and partially renovated in the twelfth (it is said that the Countess Matilde of Canossa, a very determined woman, took an interest in it), while the coverage vaults are from the fourteenth century. Together with the rectory of San Michele in Carmignano, these are the typical places of the Sacred Art of Carmignano.
But many other Romanesque masterpieces studded and embroidered into the landscape and enrich almost every single fraction: the little church of San Pietro in Verghereto of the twelfth century, the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Bacchereto, which was built around the year one thousand on the site of a castle, the little church of San Lorenzo in Montalbiolo also of the twelfth century, and the churches of San Pietro in Seano and San Michele in Comeana of the tenth and thirteenth centuries. Even though long-standing, the church of Seano does not retain much of the memories of that time: just the foundation. Yet it was rectory and collegiate church even before Carmignano. On the stone ambo there’s still the coat of arms of the Olivetani monks for whom it was the abbey. The baptismal font is the work of contemporary sculptor and countryman Quinto Martini. But even the little church of Santa Cristina in Mezzana has a long history (according to some it was actually founded in the year eight DC), such as the oratory of San Jacopo in Capezzana, besides, in the chapel of villa “Le Farnete” in Comeana you can even find a fresco of the school of Ghirlandaio. (Wf)

‹ › ×