Chiesa di San Martino a Maiano

Intimate and collected

Cozy and suggestive.

I really liked it better in the spring summer

Small and pretty church at the beginning of the locality Maiano (Fiesole).

The church was part of a Benedictine monastery Above the door, San Martino who gives the cloak to a poor, relief in Robbia terracotta. Nearby is the Fattoria di Maiano

A church rich in history and art

Located in the homonymous hamlet of Maiano in the municipality of Fiesole in Florence, the Church of San Martino a Maiano, with the adjacent Benedictine convent, is part of a monumental religious complex built in the 11th century; it is therefore a church of ancient origins ... however, today it shows an aspect - albeit consistent with the original apparatus - strongly remodeled by various restorations that took place throughout history: in particular, conducted first in the fifteenth century and then - on several occasions - between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The nineteenth-century one, of considerable impact, was started in 1885 by John Temple Leader, who also acquired the nearby monastery in 1873, transforming it into a farm with various outbuildings. As a result of these interventions, the façade opens onto the small, improperly defined square - also named after Givliano Da Maiano - resulting "oppressed" by the building in front of it ... a real shame because such a delightful hillside church would have deserved a worthy and more large churchyard. The church, in classical Romanesque style, has a Latin cross plan with a single nave, introduced by a gabled façade with a single small entrance portal, surmounted by a lunette decorated with the theme: "Saint Martin giving the cloak to a poor ”glazed ceramic of remarkable workmanship attributed to the Della Robbia family, today protected by a (too thick) bird net. Inside there are valuable works of the late 1500s with a religious theme, canvases attributed to the artist Giovan Battista Naldini, “San Benedetto and San Martino” (1583) and “The Annunciation to the Virgin” from 1585. The church, in addition to its compact proportions and the Alberese stone wall fabric, is distinguished by its happy location at high altitude. Going up the hillside overlooking the building to the west, continuing up to the quarries of Maiano, it is possible to admire the vast rural landscape that opens towards Settignano, framing the characteristic Tuscan tile roof of the church and above all its massive quadrangular bell tower, that stands out powerful among the slender branches of the cypresses and among the muffled ones of the olive trees. A visit and a quiet walk through the country lanes towards Maiano are strongly recommended.