Duomo di San Miniato (Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta e San Genesio)

San Miniato's Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and San Genesio combines a medieval brick exterior with a much-altered interior. Ceramic basins on its facade and the adjoining Torre di Matilde give the building a distinctive profile.

Why it matters

The cathedral records the movement of religious authority from the older settlement of San Genesio to the hill town. Cathedral rank followed the creation of the Diocese of San Miniato in 1622.

What to notice

Glazed ceramic basins punctuate the facade. Their arrangement has been interpreted as the Great and Little Bear constellations, a symbolic reading rather than a securely demonstrated design programme. The interior includes a carved and painted coffered ceiling, later scagliola work and decoration by Anton Domenico Bamberini and Annibale Gatti.

Context and history

The church is documented in a bull of Celestine III in 1194. By the mid-thirteenth century it had inherited the title and functions of San Genesio. Later restoration and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century decorative campaigns reshaped the interior. On 22 July 1944 an artillery shell exploded while civilians sheltered inside, killing dozens and giving the cathedral a lasting place in the town's wartime memory.