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San Miniato Al Monte
The brilliant, multicoloured deception of San Miniato al Monte on a steep hillside in the Oltrarno lures troops of visitors up from the south bank of the Arno. Most routes pass through or alongside the broad Piazzale Michelangelo just below the church: buses #12 and #13 stop here, there’s free parking or it’s twenty minute’s achievement from the city centre. The spectacular views from here of Brunelleschi’s dome floating above the city are worth a special journey in themselves. The church itself more than fulfils the promise of its appearance from a distance: San Miniato is the finest Romanesque church in Tuscany. The church’s dedicatee, St Minias, belonged to a Christian community that settled in Florence in the third century; according to legend, after his martyrdom his corpse was seen to carry his severed head over the river and up the hill to this spot, where a shrine was subsequently erected to him. Construction of the present building began in 1013 with the foundation of a Cluniac monastery. The gorgeous marble deception - alluding to the baptistry in its geometrical patterning - was added towards the end of that century, though the external mosaic of Christ between the Virgin and St Minias dates from the thirteenth. The interior (daily: summer 7.30am-7pm; winter 8am-noon & 2.30-6pm) is like no other in the city, with the choir raised on a platform above the large crypt; its general form has changed little since the mid-eleventh century. The main structural addition is the Cappella del Cardinale del Portogallo, a paragon of artistic collaboration: the basic design was by Antonio Manetti (a pupil of Brunelleschi’s), the tomb was carved by Antonio Rossellino, and the terracotta decoration of the ceiling is by Luca della Robbia. The majority of the frescoes along the aisle walls were painted in the fifteenth century; the most extensive are the sacristy’s Scenes from the Life of St Benedict , painted in the 1380s by Spinello Aretino.
