Located a short distance from the centre of Gambassi, the parish church of Santa Maria a Chianni is a good example of a Romanesque religious building, one of the most important in the Valdelsa area . In its architecture, there are similarities with the Cathedral of Volterra.
Placed on the hills north-east of Gambassi Terme, left of the Elsa river, it stood at an important road junction, there where the ancient "northern" Via Volterrana intersected with the original Via Francigena or Romea.
The earliest records on the parish church are very old, so much that between 990 and 994 Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury, in the list of legs of his route from Rome to the English channel, mentioned as the twentieth submansio (stage stop) Sante Marie a Glan, the name that it still bears today.
The building in its current appearance dates back to the end of the 12th century: the sandstone facade stands out, contrasting with the surrounding landscape, and features three horizontal orders, a gate and blind arcades.
The rather austere interior, typically Romanesque, is divided into three naves by pillars with capitals carved with plant and anthropomorphic motifs. Inside the parish church is a 17th century copy, attributed to Francesco Curradi, of the more famous Pala di Gambassi altarpiece by Andrea del Sarto, kept today in the Galleria Palatina of Florence, where it was moved from the Santi Lorenzo e Onofrio monastery in Gambassi, in exchange for this copy, which was then placed in the parish church in Chianni. Other paintings found in the parish church are attributed to Cosimo Daddi and Giuseppe Arrighi.
Pieve di Santa Maria a Chianni
Chianni, 50050 Gambassi Terme FI
