Pieve dei Santi Cosma e Damiano a San Gusmè

The church of Santi Cosma e Damiano, whose dedication is linked to the name San Gusmè, is recorded in a deed of 867 concerning lands around it. Rebuilt in neo-Romanesque style in the early twentieth century, it preserves stucco altars of 1701 and a sixteenth-century Annunciation.

Why it matters

The pieve is among the Chianti's earliest documented churches and served the rural district long before the walled village took shape. The 867 deed records lands around the church, rather than the date of its present fabric. Although rebuilt in the early twentieth century, the church resembles the building represented in the 1825 cadastral survey. Its traditional single-aisle plan and furnishings preserve traces of earlier phases.

What to notice

The gabled facade has a two-light window. Inside, exposed wooden trusses span the nave, and two lateral stucco altars date to 1701. The main altar holds a sixteenth-century Annunciation. Nearby are canvases of Saints Peter and Paul, copies after paintings by Rutilio Manetti, and two columns traditionally said to have come from the Roman villa on Giannutri. The church stands within the village walls beside Porta Nuova.

Context and history

In February 867, Winigi di Ranieri, count of Siena, gave his possessions around the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano to the monastery of San Salvatore della Berardenga. The pieve served a scattered rural district as the settlement nearby grew into the walled village. A traditional chronology places the church's foundation in 1008, though this date is uncertain. The building shown in the 1825 Lorenese cadastre stood, with some reservations, on the same site as today's church. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was rebuilt in neo-Romanesque style, together with Porta Nuova. The church remains the parish church of San Gusmè in the diocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro.