Tuscany
is one of the most famous regions in Europe and has one of the richest histories.
San Miniato, the XX mile City, has always been a part of this history.
This
title comes from its special geographical position. San Miniato is located along
the Via Francigena (The road from France) that connected northern Europe to Rome
during the Middle Ages and it was travelled by an uninterrupted flow of men,
armies, trade, ideas and culture. Situated along this route in the heart of the
Arno River Valley, San Miniato was at the intersection of the roads between
Florence and Pisa, Lucca and Siena. Pistoia, San Gimignano, Volterra and Vinci
also lay within these twenty miles.
|
It
is not surprising, therefore, that San Miniato was a favoured city of emperors
like Fredrick II of Swabia and Popes such as Gregory V and Eugene IV.
In 1533, for example, as Michelangelo wrote in one of his manuscripts, he
met with Pope Clement VII in San Miniato where the pontiff commissioned him to
paint the Sistine Chapel.
|
|
 |
A
few years later, Michel de Montaigne stopped there and recorded the visit in his
work “Travel to Italy”. It may
be that another great traveller, Wolfgang Goethe,
whose journey between Florence and Siena was documented, stopped to visit
San Miniato al Tedesco, the Rocca, the castle of his fellow countryman Frederick
II and the sixteenth-century Accademia degli Affidati.
The
entire history of Tuscany, from the Etruscans to the Grand Duchy of
Hapsburg-Lorraine, found a meeting point in San Miniato.
San
Miniato has a history of Etruscan and later Roman colonies, as evidenced by
excavations of a III century B.C. necropolis in Fontevivo and those of a Roman
villa in Antonini. The finds excavated there are kept in the Archaeological
Museum in Florence and a smaller number in the Museo Civico (Municipal Museum).
The
original core of the city dates back to the 8th century when, according to the
original document from 713 kept in the Archivio Arcivescovile (Archiepiscopal Archives) in Lucca, seventeen Longobards
built a church there dedicated to the martyr Miniato.
The
city's origin is therefore Germanic, and since the Middle Ages it would be known
as San Miniato al Tedesco. In the span of five centuries San Miniato grew as a
medieval bastion, from when Otto I of Saxony in 962 made it one of the seats of
his imperial government, up to when Frederick II of Swabia built his castle
there in 1218, making it the focal point for central Italy's tax collection.
After
the decline of Swevian power, San Miniato became an independent commune.
The city grew to include large convents, schools, institutions and
hospitals. The town Statutes, kept
in the historical archives, give evidence to the independence and good fortune
they enjoyed. Only at the end of the 14th century was San Miniato forced to go
under the rule of the newly powerful Florentine Signoria (Seigniory).
It
will be another German, Maria Maddalena of Austria, wife of Cosimo dei Medici,
to help San Miniato by making it the bishop's see in 1622. In gratitude, a large
marble statue was erected in her honour. Unfortunately,
it was destroyed at the end of the eighteenth century by the San Miniato
Jacobins during the French Revolution and today only a large fragment of it
remains near the Franciscan convent.
The
city saw its strongest growth take place in the following century.
The
diocesan see enriched it with the
Santuario del Santissimo Crocifisso (Sanctuary of the Holy Crucifix) and the
large Seminary. Cultural life was fertile and study and cultural academies, such
as the Affidati and later the Euteleti, were founded.
San
Miniato is well-established city by the end of the 19th century.
It will be the Second World War to inflict on it a hard blow when the
German army mine and destroy Frederick II's castle fortress and a large part of
the old medieval districts. Reconstruction
is quick though: in 1957 the
fortress is rebuilt from the rubble, and the city's rebirth can be admired from
the plain below.
Such
a history could not but leave an important artistic and architectural heritage.
A short tour of the town can begin with the central Piazza del Popolo,
with its fourteenth century church of San Domenico, rich with works of art such
as a fresco of St. Anselmo, attributed by Longhi and Berenson to Masolino da
Panicale, and a sepulchral monument by Donatello.
To
the left of the church’s facade is the amazing Via
Angelica, an underground passageway leading from the walls that connected
the city to the countryside, where chapels of the ancient convent can be seen.
To the right are the convent’s cloisters which were confiscated and
opened to the populace during Napoleon’s rule.
Here the Historical Archives are kept, one of the richest in Tuscany with
over one hundred thousand documents dating back to 1200, including the ancient
City Statutes.
Continuing
on, examples of Renaissance architecture can be seen including the Palazzo
Formichini, housing the Cassa di Risparmio’s
art collection (with works by Guercino,
Lorenzo di Bicci, Jacopo del Sellaio, Cigoli and Giovanbattista Naldini),
and particularly the Palazzo Grifoni, built in 1555 by Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo.
Proceeding downhill is the octagonal shaped church of the Santissima
Annunziata that contains the relics of St. Dorothy, and the Monastery of St.
Clare, another museum with works by Cigoli,
Deodato Orlandi, Jacopo Chimenti and panels from fifteenth century
Sienese and Florentine schools.
Going
in the opposite direction from San Domenico you reach the old castle area.
After passing the Palazzo
Roffia, also by Giuliano di Baccio d’Agnolo, you proceed though the Porta
Toppariorum which gives access to the core of the ancient defence complex.
Inside the Gate is the Casatorre degli Stipendiari, built by Frederick to
house the military contingent, and today an exhibition area. Ahead is the scenic
Piazza del Seminario, closed off by the
other medieval door called the Ruga.
Through
a three-way access from the Piazza, you can go up to the
Piazza del Duomo. Ruins dating
back to the 11th century of the tower and the Palazzo Imperiale (Imperial Palace)
can be seen here, where four Germanic emperors stayed as guests of the Swevian
and Othan vicars: Otto I of Saxony in 962, Frederick Barbarossa in 1167 and
again in 1178, Otto IV in 1209 and Frederick II of Swabia in 1218, 1226 and in
1240. Facing it is the Palazzo
Vescovile (Bishop’s Palace), erected in the fourteenth century over three
pre-existing buildings. In front of it is the
Cathedral, the ancient parish of Holy Mary dating back to 1100 which retains
its Romanesque facade.
Next
to it is the Museo Diocesano d’Arte Sacra (the
Diocesan Museum of Religious Art), which houses many works including a
Redeemer by Verrocchio and a Crucifixion by Filippino Lippo. Behind it stands the Torre di Matilde, erected in 1100 and
which later became part of the Cathedral as its bell tower. Above it is the
fortress and surrounding walls dating back to Frederick II’s time.
Here, as Dante writes in the XIII canto of his Inferno, Frederick’s
advisor Pier delle Vigne fell out of grace and was imprisoned and left to die.
The
massive fourteenth century convent
of San Francesco is located on the slope of the highest hill and was for
many centuries one of the most flourishing Franciscan centres in Tuscany. In the
fifteenth century it was run by the Blessed Borromeo and Bernard, who later
taught at Oxford and the Sorbonne. On
the other side of the hill is the
Santissimo Crocifisso (Holy Crucifix), an important
Sanctuary in the form of a Greek Cross by Anton Maria Ferri in 1705
containing an 11th century wooden cross that is venerated and thought to be
miraculous.
In
front of the Sanctuary is the Palazzo del Commune (Town Hall), with its frescoed
rooms and nineteenth century facade, and the Oratorio
del Loretino (Oratory of Loretino), with panels by Francesco Lanfranchi,
brother of Andrea Del Sarto, and a wooden altar from 1527.
As you descend the hill, amidst early Middle Age churches and palaces, is
the historical Piazza Bonaparte with its monument to Leopold, Grand Duke of
Tuscany by Pampaloni and the Oratory of San Rocco, the ancient chapel of the
Buonaparte family.
Lastly,
continuing towards the ruined Porta di Poggighisi (Poggighisi Gate), from where
Francesco Ferrucci conquered the city in 1530, is the Church of Santa Caterina,
altered in the 15th century and housing the skeleton of St. Boniface the martyr,
and the sixteenth century Palazzo
Migliorati, home today of the Accademia degli Euteleti, where the funeral
mask of Napoleon is kept.
San
Miniato’s hillside profile from the early Middle Ages divides the Arno River
Valley, dense with towns and settlements, and the uncontaminated panorama of its
vast rural hinterland. On the map, the “hills of San Miniato” connect the
Florentine area of Montespertoli and San Casciano, the Valdelsa of San Gimignano
and the inland Pisan countryside to the Etruscan town of Volterra, which, on a
clear day, you can see from the Colle della Rocca (Castle Hill).
The
first news about the territory of San Miniato dates from 938 and can be found at
the Archiepiscopal Archives in Lucca: and it is an act of enfeoffment that
confers the city and over thirty nearby localities to a lord.
The most important farms in the territory are already listed in this
document. A Papal Bill from 1195
shows over fifty churches with their rural communities were located in the San
Miniato territory.
It
is not surprising, therefore, that the San Miniato countryside still has
numerous small villages, villas, parishes and castles.
The most interesting itinerary is in the direction of the Valle dell’Egola
(Egola River Valley), a tributary of the Arno river going southwest.
Coming
down the hill from the town of Costa towards the inland area of Pisa and going
through the village of Serra, a steep unpaved road in the midst of a forest will
take you to the Castle of Montebicchieri, one of the bastions for the defence of
the old commune. An ancient
abandoned rural settlement amid large oak trees today surrounds the castle.
Returning
back towards Serra and heading in the direction of Palaia, you come upon an
interesting sight. Turning towards Bucciano, going up the hill and proceeding
towards the Chiecina river valley, the ancient Pieve di Barbinaia can be reached.
Mentioned in documents dating back to the year 868, its ruins later became part
of an old farmhouse, now in rubble.
Leaving
the Valley and returning the opposite way along the Egola river, you can climb
to the ancient village of Balconevisi, dominated by the Villa Strozzi. From this
very old settlement (the name is probably Longobard: the Valle di Cunighiso)
several very interesting itineraries can be followed, some of which lead to
underground tombs from the Neolithic Age.
Finally,
continuing along the Valley, you will come to the Pieve di San Giovanni di
Corazzano (Parish Church of St. John), a national monument and classic example
of rural Romanesque architecture. It
dates back to the 12th century and with its distinct red terracotta colour,
combines in its marble facade Roman ruins from the Classical Age taken from the
pre-existing colony, the ancient Roman settlement of Quaratiana.
Surrounding
these sites are the hills with their farms that dot the wooded hilltops, the old
farmhouses and the imposing structures of the tobacco drying structures, some of
which are still working. These
surroundings, verdant and rich with history, are as yet untouched by modernity
and can be enjoyed today thanks to the agritourism facilities found at the
area’s main farms.
The
people of San Miniato are an odd type: frank and open as the Tuscans, but
serious and reserved like one who is convinced that they have been privileged to
be born there. Since San Miniato is a crossing of winds, so their community has
opened itself to commerce and contacts with the outside world.
Frederick
II of Swabia was a friend to San Miniato, and stayed there more than once, as
mentioned before. The early building of the Franciscan
Convent, one of the most imposing and important buildings in the city, was
said to be the work of the same St. Francis when he was just over thirty years
old. It was built over the ruins of the protoromanesque church of San Miniato,
that gave origin to the city around the year 700.
Repetti,
in his Choreographic Dictionary of Tuscany, defines San Miniato as the
“breeding-ground of illustrious men”. Matilde
di Canossa and Francesco Sforza were born there, the latter giving rise to the
Visconti family of Milan. Five
centuries later another man from San Miniato, the senator and famous oncologist
Pietro Bucalossi, will become mayor of the Lombard city.
In
1559 Ludovico Cardi, the Tuscan Correggio, also was born in San Miniato. Known
as “il Cigoli”, his works hang in the Uffizi, Louvre, Prado and Hermitage
museums.
The
Corsican branch of the Bonaparte family is descended from a noble San Miniato
family as well. Twice the young Napoleon lived in San Miniato with relatives,
and he returned again in 1797 during the Italian Campaign, when he interrupted
his advance and held a council of war in
his Monsignor uncle’s house in the square having the same name.
Newspaper articles of the time kept in the archives excitedly reported
this extraordinary fact.
San
Miniato was where Giosuè Carducci, a young secondary school professor, started
his career as a poet which would eventually earn him the Nobel prize.
Here, on the top of the hill, he published his first collection of verses:
The Resources of San Miniato al Tedesco, printed by Ristori.
Seventy years later another great poet, Mario Luzi, will take the place
Carducci once held as a teacher.
Art
and history, culture and poetry. An
unusual combination that still produces effects. The Taviani
brothers’ motion pictures, (both were born in the city centre), have more
than once told the story of San Miniato as a metaphor of the world, such as the
microcosm of the fratricidal war in their film “Notte di San Lorenzo” (Nights
of San Lorenzo).
