Badia a Coltibuono

The Coltibuono Abbey stands at 628 meters , in the middle of magnificent woods and with a fantastic landscape, very close to the main route that connects the Chianti province to the Valdarno province. A Romanesque church with a massive bell tower stands next to the ruins of the ancient abbey. The church of St.Lawrence was built in 1049 thanks to the Firidolfi family, feudal lords of the area , that in 1095 built also a shelter for pilgrims. In 1115, it was already property of the Vallombrani Benedictines, that own the main house on the opposite side, on the slopes of Pratomagno. Such change of ownership was desired by the Firidolfi family, in order to create a counterbalance to the authority of the bishops, that had control over the urban clergy, that supported the claims of the bourgeoisie, while the Benedictines tended to sympathize more with the aristocracy. At the beginning of 1400 the monastery almost didn’t have any monks . The institute, having been badly managed, had suffered from the continuous wars between Siena and Florence. Later on, to make it rise again at least on the economic level, it was given to high ranking clergymen, among whom Giovanni de’ Medici, the future pope, Leo X. When Siena fell under the power of Florence, the monks enlarged the property and began reconstruction works. In 1710 the cellars, that are still used nowadays , were built . On December 10, 1807, the Napoleonic troops entered Florence. All the possessions of the religious congregations were confiscated: Coltibuono was also put on sale, but the buyers didn’t show up. To overcome the scruples of the Italians, the French sold the clerical properties disguised as lotteries. So they organized great raffles, where the prize was an abbey or another clerical building. So , in 1846, Coltibuono was bought by the Giuntini family, to whom it still belongs nowadays . In 1939 Marilù Giuntini transformed Coltibuono in a comfortable and fascinating residence. Being a great friend of Bernard Berenson, she transformed it in a cultural site . Probably, during the transition to the Vallombrosani in the XII century, the church was rebuilt. Only the nave could belong to a previous construction . The building has a cruciform structure: the transept juts outward considerably and the apse is semicircular. Where the nave meets the transept stands a cupola with an octagonal base. Externally it’s protected by a square lantern with a strange covering that resembles a pagoda. The building , on the whole, is scarcely illuminated because the only source of light comes from the opening on the facade and from three small windows , double splayed ,placed in the centre of the apse and in the terminal parts of the two arms of the transept. The church lacks any type of decorative elements, therefore the preciousness of the stonework ornamentation , made of perfect rows of a particular stone called “pietraforte” becomes quite evident. Preceding the facade, stands an arcade ,that proceeds curving on the left up to the base of the bell tower, a grandiose structure, that at about three quarters of its height is embellished with four large one fold windows. On the right of the church stands the cloister with the other monastic dwellings, that now have been transformed in a villa.