Tuscany to Discover
MONTE SAN SAVINO
Monte San Savino rises in the heart of Chiana Valley. It is a village of about 9,000 people spread over a predominantly hilly area. The village covers approximately 90 Km2 and the altitude ranges from 250 m ASL of the hamlet Alberoro to about 600 m ASL of Gargonza.
The village is the birthplace of Andrea Sansovino, a 16th-century Italian talented architect and sculptor who carried out works in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence, in the church of Santa Chiara in Monte San Savino and who was rewarded for his mastery by the Medici Family of Florence: he was introduced as an architect and a sculptor to the Portuguese sovereign Giovanni II Aviz and he lived for about 10 years in Portugal. Sansovino’s works are in the Museum of Lisbon, in Sintra and in Belem.
Back to Italy he created works in Volterra, in Genoa, in Bologna and in Florence, where he made the sculpture of the Baptism of Christ, placed on the door of the Baptistery facing the Cathedral which put the artist at the height of the Florentine school. He also made some "madonnas with child", kept so far at the museum of Bargello in Florence. Later on he worked in Rome to make tombs and monuments through which he succeeded in amazing with his expressive peculiarity, and in Loreto, where he collaborated on the realization of the great project of the Sanctuary.
Inside the walls in Monte San Savino there are the Logge dei Mercanti, a 16th-century stone construction in the historic centre, Il Cassero, Palazzo Pretorio and the monumental complex of Palazzo del Monte.
Next to the Hotel Restaurant Domenico there is the sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Vertighe, a building dating back to 1100 and then rebuilt in the mid-15th century, historically remembered thanks to the presence of works and frescoes of the period and because till today it is a destination of pilgrimage.
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