Chiesa di San Salvatore

San Salvatore in Castellina in Chianti combines postwar neo-Romanesque architecture with artworks from earlier phases of the town's religious history. Its porch bears the date AD MCMXLV, or 1945.

Why it matters

Severe damage during the Second World War led to reconstruction in forms recalling the medieval church. Older furnishings and the relationship with the town walls give the rebuilt building a longer historical context.

What to notice

The stone facade has a rose window, pilaster strips and decorative arches. A square bell tower accompanies the three-aisled interior. An early-fifteenth-century fresco depicts the Madonna and Child with angels and saints. Other devotional works include a polychrome wooden statue of San Barnaba and an urn associated with the relics of San Fausto.

Context and history

The right aisle incorporates remains of Castellina's medieval fortifications. Seventeenth-century patronage added religious furnishings, including the San Fausto relic urn donated by the Ugolini family in 1661 and an Annunciation commissioned in 1629 after the venerated Florentine image. Postwar rebuilding brought these older layers into a renewed architectural setting.