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Churches of Castelfiorentino, Tuscany

Opposite the Municipal Palace, is the Collegiate Church of Saints Lorenzo and Leonardo, an antique oratory which dates back to the 13th century and many times restored. It houses traces of the original Lombardy style on the outside and other brick buildings in the area with a facade framed by pilasters and a mullioned window above the jutting doorway. On the inside, there is a wooden crucifix by Giovanni Pisano (14th century) and paintings inspired by Santa Verdiana, by Giovan Camillo Sagrestani (1711) and Annibale Gatti (from 1870 to 1881).

The nearby Parish of Saints Ippolito and Biagio, has an identical doorway. It was built in 1195 at the summit of a hill dominating the city, where the parish church of San Biagio had already risen prior to the 10th century. The bell-tower contains three antique bells (one from 1253). The remains of the medieval city walls with two towers, repaired during the reign of Cosimo de’ Medici, can be seen behind the church.

In the surrounding areas, there are some elegant villas built during the Late Middle Ages by important local landowning Florentine families.
In Castelnuovo d’Elsa, besides the “Annunciation” attributed to Neri di Bicci in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, there is the Church of Saints Lorenzo and Barbara, a brick building from the 1300’s that preserves a tapestry shaped fresco attributed to Paolo Schiavo, a Florentine painter and collaborator of Masolino.

In Coiano, along the old Via Francigena, there is the Pieve Parish Church of Saints Peter and Paul, originally from the 11th century, with its facade of Pisa shapes, opened by a doorway and a mullioned window and, on the inside, traces of 14th century frescoes.

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