Tuscany Farmhouses

San Gimignano

San Gimignano is not in the Classic Chianti, but you should visit it for its masterpieces of the Florentine and Sienese flourishing. In this city a lot of artists have worked, who are not always recognized because very often a work of art was started by an artist but it was finished by another.
The city is very attractive with its brick streets, its flight of stairs decorated with worked stones, its palaces, ancient houses and its wonderful doors.
Remarkable is the famous Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta which was built in the XII century and then widened by Giuliano da Maiano in the half of the XV century. Here there are frescoes dating back from the XIV century representing the stories of the Old Testament painted by Barna from Siena, Bartolo of Fredi, Taddeo of Bartolo.  Another painting portrays “The life of S.Fina” by Domenico Ghirlandaio.
The chapel was built by Giuliano e Benedetto da Maiano, there are decoration and terracotta friezes.
Benozzo Gozzoli made the San Sebastiano and also the frescoes in the  S.Agostino’s church, which represent the stories and the life of  the Saint. In this church Pollaiolo painted “The Coronation”.
Then there are also the churches of S.Pietro, S.Jacopo and San Bartolo.
The palace of the commune’s chief  has in the loggia a disfigured fresco painted by Sodoma.
Finally here there is a building in which the wool is washed, It was built in the XII century and amplified in the XII century. In the centre of the triangular square of the Cisterna there is a gracious well. Interesting are the Etruscan museum and the museum of sacred art but also the civic picture-gallery. Near there is the Pieve of Cellole dating back from the XIII century, it is very marvellous for its harmonious structure and its accurate dimensions.