Sambuca Val di Pesa
-
The village of Sambuca began as a crossing point on the river Pesa. A castle on this site, then called Romagliano, along the ancient Roman road, is mentioned in documents from as early as 1053. The first documents regarding the Sambuca bridge date to 1179 and the village itself is mentioned in Acts of the following century. In fact, it began to develop after 1301, when the Commune of Florence granted two masons permission to build houses near the bridge. In Medieval times the village also had two hospitals. One stood on the site of today’s votive tabernacle dedicated to Saint Lazarus. In 1415 the bridge was rebuilt and widened, paid for by a tax levied on the inhabitants of Sambuca and Tavarnelle by the Florentine Signoria. The bridge was strategically important enough to be drawn on a map of Tuscany by Leonardo da Vinci, which is now kept in the Royal Library at Windsor. The engineer Neri Zocchi incorporated parts of the old bridge into a new structure in 1794-1795. Further enlargements were made in the 19th century: the two main spans had to be rebuilt in 1947 to repair damages caused by the Second World War. In 1725 the Torelli family commissioned the Chapel of Sant’Anna on the North side of the bridge to protect an old tabernacle and its 16th century fresco of a Madonna and Child. The Church of Sant’Jacopo stands on the hill. It was founded by the Buondelmonti family, whose shield decorates the entrance. The Augustinians founded a community of canon regulars here to assist pilgrims and travelers. During the 18th century the portico was added to the Romanesque church, which had already undergone several alterations during the course of the 16th century. Between 1953 and 1975 the new church in the center of town was erected: it is a sober building, part stone ashlars, part cement, at the time a novelty for Chianti. Works of art from the old church were relocated here. Of particular interest are a small Gothic pietra serena tabernacle perhaps of the early 15th century Florentine school, and a Madonna with Saints by a late 18th century Florentine painter.
From Sambuca, the road climbs through the woods towards San Donato in Poggio. At the first group of modern houses, you turn into the Strada Cerbaia, which crosses the fields to reach the little Church of Santa Maria a Cerbaia. Continuing on the provincial road, outside the town walls at the foot of San Donato, the Romanesque parish church stands out in the landscape.
-
Return to San Casciano in Val di Pesa