BADIA A SETTIMO. – The Abbey of S. Salvatore at S., near Florence, founded by Count Lotario dei Cadolingi in the transition between the 10th and 11th centuries, was inhabited first by the Cluniac Benedictines and, after 1236, by the Cistercians of S. Galgano.
Enclosed within fortifications dating from the late fourteenth century, the B. preserves almost intact the ground plan given to it by the Cistercians, as well as many parts constructed by them between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, such as the Chapter House and a large three-aisled room with groin vaults (originally perhaps intended to accommodate pilgrims), which constitutes the oldest example of Gothic architecture in the Florentine territory. The turreted gate, decorated with a magnificent stucco relief showing French influences, was destroyed, together with the bell tower, by German mines in July 1944.
The church, through various transformations, has preserved the crypt and other remains of the original construction, which may be dated to the beginning of the eleventh century. From the same period was the lower, circular-plan part of the bell tower, which rose above it in two polygonal sections, the lower dating from the thirteenth century and the upper from the fourteenth. The decoration of the church roof belongs to this century, while the presbytery and two cloisters display Brunelleschian forms.
Fourteenth-century frescoes, by the school of Ghirlandaio and by Giovanni di S. Giovanni, are found in the church, which preserves paintings, reliquaries, and reliquary busts from the fifteenth century. – Vedi Tav. XLII.