Chiesa dei Santi Jacopo e Filippo

The Romanesque church of Saints Jacopo and Filippo in Certaldo preserves the tomb of Giovanni Boccaccio and the memory of Beata Giulia della Rena. The church and its former convent connect the town's religious history with its literary heritage.

Why it matters

The church, built in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, is a central religious landmark of Certaldo Alto and the burial place of Giovanni Boccaccio, who died in 1375. It is also associated with Beata Giulia della Rena, a fourteenth-century recluse whose cult remains part of the town's history. The adjoining convent buildings later housed the Museum of Sacred Art.

What to notice

A marble slab in the nave marks Boccaccio's tomb and reproduces a portrait of the poet based on the image by Andrea del Castagno, now in the Uffizi. Beata Giulia's remains lie in an urn beneath an altar dedicated to her. A fifteenth-century predella above it depicts miracles and episodes from her life. The church's art and memorials link local devotion with Certaldo's literary history.

Context and history

The church was probably built toward the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century. Its adjacent convent housed different religious communities over the centuries. Boccaccio was buried here after his death in 1375. Burials within churches were prohibited under the Leopoldine reforms of 1783, and the poet's grave was opened; accounts of what happened to his remains and later identifications of the tomb became contested. The celebrated grave today reflects a long history of local efforts to identify and commemorate the poet's burial place. Lord Byron referred to Boccaccio's burial in the fourth canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, published in 1818.