Chiesa di Santa Caterina

The Church of Santa Caterina in Colle di Val d'Elsa preserves a Romanesque portal and a Renaissance terracotta Lamentation by Zaccaria Zacchi.

Why it matters

Documented from the late thirteenth century, the church gave its name to the Borgo di Santa Caterina quarter. Its history connects the growth of the medieval district with later architectural change and important local sculpture.

What to notice

A lateral Romanesque portal survives from the earlier church, with interlocking sandstone blocks forming its architrave. The eighteenth-century facade has a rusticated portal and semicircular window. Inside, Zacchi's polychrome terracotta Lamentation over the Dead Christ, modelled between 1504 and 1506, is a major work of the Valdelsa Renaissance.

Context and history

The church developed as the Borgo below the castle expanded in the late thirteenth century. Its medieval structure was transformed in the eighteenth century, leaving the side portal as evidence of the original building. The nearby house of humanist Aonio Paleario adds to the quarter's intellectual history.