San Lorenzo al Ponte: A Medieval Catholic Church in San Gimignano
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italian, Republic of Florence
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page11 sections
History
San Lorenzo al Ponte is a Catholic church in San Gimignano, Italy, built in 1240 during the medieval period at the expense of the municipality. Its name refers to its position near the former drawbridge linking the road to Piazza della Cisterna with the ancient castle of the bishop. The church belongs to the Archdiocese of Siena-Colle di Val d’Elsa-Montalcino.
Before and after the 1240 foundation
An earlier church dedicated to Saint Lucy stood on the same site. It appears in papal bulls issued by Pope Lucius III on 29 January 1183 and Pope Honorius III on 3 August 1220. Both documents placed it under the authority of the Collegiate Church of San Gimignano, the town’s principal collegiate religious institution. The municipality retained responsibility for San Lorenzo after its construction, with statutes of 1255 assigning it responsibility for maintenance and the administration of the church’s property.
San Lorenzo later received the property of the suppressed churches of San Michele and Santa Maria Maddalena. Its financial position nevertheless remained weak during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A Dominican convent was moved from Poggio di Montestaffoli to Monte della Torre in 1354, and the church of Santissima Annunziata was later built beside San Lorenzo. Tensions arose between the Dominican community and the canons of the Collegiate Church, who had previously exercised authority over San Lorenzo. On 30 September 1435, Pope Eugene IV ended the dispute by suppressing the parish and uniting the church with the neighboring Dominican convent.
The Madonna del Prato and the confraternity
By 1411, a portico had been built along the eastern side of San Lorenzo around an image of the Madonna and Child. The Madonna is a Christian devotional representation of the Virgin Mary, and this particular image became known as the Madonna del Prato. It was traditionally considered miraculous and attributed in about 1310 to the young Simone Martini, a major Sienese painter of the early fourteenth century.
Around 1413, the rector Niccolò Salvucci commissioned Cenni di Francesco di ser Cenni, a Tuscan painter active in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, to create or renew frescoes in the church and oratory. He also restored the miraculous image, leaving its face untouched. At that time, the church and the oratory were separate buildings. The oratory, a smaller place of worship for prayer and devotion, was enlarged in 1456. Further work followed in 1561, probably including wooden grilles that separated clergy conducting ceremonies for the Madonna from the public and from sick people attending from outside.
A congregation existed at San Lorenzo by 15 August 1471 at the latest. Its presence is also shown by a will dated 28 December 1483, which included bequests to the miraculous Madonna in the oratory. In this setting, a confraternity, meaning a lay religious association, helped administer the Marian devotional institution.
Damage, suppression, and changing use
Water repeatedly entered the building and damaged the miraculous image in 1566 and 1596. The municipality paid Lorenzo Ciardi, known as “il Pittorino,” five scudi to restore it. Further infiltration occurred in 1610. Twenty scudi were allocated in 1613 for necessary work, followed by another twenty in 1615 for repairs to the church and the facade associated with the miraculous Madonna of Saint Dominic. A vaulted covering was probably added during this period to shield the Madonna del Prato from further damage.
As devotion to the Madonna declined, both the canons and the Dominican friars increasingly neglected San Lorenzo. The church was interdicted for worship in 1677 after being profaned. In 1687, the friars requested a municipal alms of 30 lire because two roof beams had deteriorated so severely that services and other religious activities could not take place.
Pietro Leopoldo, grand duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790, suppressed the confraternity of the Virgin Mary that administered the oratory in 1785. He suppressed the Dominican convent two years later. San Lorenzo then returned to the canons of the Collegiate Church, who later sold the premises to private owners. The building was converted into an olive press and a room for making wine.
Twentieth-century restoration
The Oratory of the Madonna del Prato was restored in 1917. San Lorenzo underwent a larger restoration with substantial additions in 1929, directed by Peleo Bacci, an Italian art historian and heritage official involved in the work. The church reopened for worship on 12 April 1931.
Remains
San Lorenzo al Ponte survives as a single rectangular hall with one nave, a roofed body, and a vaulted presbytery. Its walls are faced almost entirely in brick. The surviving medieval fabric is combined with elements added during twentieth-century restoration, creating a building whose present exterior reflects both the thirteenth-century church and later reconstruction.
Church fabric and exterior
Medieval facade
The original facade preserves lower masonry made from cavernous limestone and a mid-thirteenth-century portal with a sbarra arch, a named form of arched doorway. These elements belong to the church built in 1240 and distinguish the early structure from its later additions.
Twentieth-century additions
The canopy, two-light window, crowning, and bell gable were produced through the numerous restorations directed by Peleo Bacci during the third decade of the twentieth century. A two-light window is divided into two openings by a central mullion, while a bell gable is a wall-like structure containing openings for bells rather than a separate tower.
Eastern portico and oratory
The eastern portico was built around the image of the Madonna and Child. Against the exterior wall of the church stands the adjoining oratory, which originally had its own roof. The oblique outlines preserved in the interior paintings reveal the form of the earlier space and the changes made when it was enlarged.
Frescoes and Marian image
The interior is organized as a single nave and retains extensive fresco decoration by Cenni di Francesco di ser Cenni. On the right wall of the loggia, a covered gallery or open-sided architectural space, is a Madonna in Glory. The face is attributed to the young Simone Martini, while the rest of the figure was produced during Cenni di Francesco’s later restoration in 1413.
The vaulted covering associated with the repairs of the seventeenth century remains in place above the image known as the Madonna del Prato. Its survival preserves the protective arrangement created after repeated water infiltration had threatened the devotional image.
