BADIA A SETTIMO. - The Abbey of S. Salvatore at S., near Florence, founded by Count Lotario of the Cadolingi in the transition between the 10th and 11th centuries, was inhabited first by Cluniac Benedictines and, after 1236, by Cistercians of S. Galgano.

Enclosed within fortifications of the late 14th century, the B. preserves almost intact the ground plan that the Cistercians gave it, as well as many parts built by them between the 13th and 14th centuries, such as the Chapter house and a large three-nave hall with cross vaults (originally perhaps intended to receive pilgrims), which constitutes the oldest example of Gothic architecture in Florentine territory. The towered gate, decorated with a grandiose stucco relief with French influences, was destroyed, together with the bell tower, by German mines in July 1944.

The Church, through transformations of various kinds, has preserved the crypt and other remains of the primitive construction, which can be dated to the beginning of the 11th century. Of the same period was the lower, circular-plan part of the bell tower, which rose above with two polygonal sections, of which the lower is of the 13th century and the upper of the 14th. To this century belongs the decoration of the Church's roof, while the presbytery and two cloisters have Brunelleschian forms.

Fourteenth-century frescoes, from the school of Ghirlandaio and of Giovanni di S. Giovanni, are found in the church, which preserves paintings, reliquaries and reliquary busts of the 15th century. - See Pl. XLII.

Plate XLII CRYPT CALLED « HALL OF THE POOR » (11th cent.)(fot. Alinari)

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: M. L. Salvadori, s. v. in Enc. Ital., V, p. 863 (with bibl.); R. Offner, A Critical and historical corpus of Florentine Painting, 3rd ser., I, New York 1931, pp. 107-19; R. Niccoli, Opere d'arte inedite alla mostra del tesoro di Firenze sacra, in Riv. d'Arte, 2nd ser., 5 (1933), pp. 221-23; A. Thümmler, Die Baukunst des 11. Jahrb. in Italien, in Röm. Jahrb. f. Kunstgeschichte, 3 (1939), pp. 155-56 and 195; R. Niccoli, Osservazioni e recenti scoperte sulla B. a S., in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz, 5 (1940), pp. 434-35.

Raffaello Niccoli

@incollection{ec2_badia_a_settimo, author = {Niccoli, Raffaello}, title = {Badia A Settimo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {677--678}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/badia-a-settimo} }

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Badia a Settimo

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