Monte San Savino and Lucignano

The itinerary includes a visit to the Renaissance town of Monte San Savino, the birthplace of Pope Julius III and the sculptor Andrea Cantucci known as Sansovino.The Middle Ages can be seen in the architecture of the Cassero and its imposing tower (14th cent.). The completely restored structure houses the Museum of Ceramics. The central street, Corso Sangallo, is lined with interesting and elegant buildings. The Pieve, Romanesque, built from the 12th century, the elegant Loggia dei Mercanti attributed to Sansovino (16th century), the Palazzo Comunale with cloister and hanging garden, and the church of Sant’Agostino, built in the 14th century with fresco cycles by Spinello Aretino inside.

Its urban structure, elliptical in shape with concentric rings, makes it one of the most unique villages in the Arezzo area.The Cassero with its high tower (14th cent.) built to a design by the Sienese Bartolo di Bartolo, in front of it a loggia of Renaissance forms but built only in the 1700s to a design by Andrea Pozzo. From here, ascending slightly, we reach the Collegiate Church of San Michele Arcangelo, (late 16th cent.) designed by Orazio Porta, with an elliptical access staircase that encloses the urban layout of the village. Inside are interesting works from the 1500s.

Just beyond the Collegiate Church is the Piazza del Tribunale with the Palace of the same name then Palazzo Comunale (13th-14th cent.). From here one enters the Museo Civico, which houses an interesting collection of paintings from the 13th to the 16th century (Bartolo di Fredi, Lippo Vanni, Luca Signorelli) and a grand reliquary in gold, silver, and gilded copper, in the shape of a tree, called the Golden Tree of Lucignano, a work attributed to Sienese goldsmiths, Sienese and Florentine miniaturists and Gabriello d’Antonio (14th-15th cent.).

Next to the Town Hall is the Romanesque Church of San Francesco (13th cent.), with a façade adorned with a Gothic portal and rose window. The interior is enriched with frescoes by Taddeo di Bartolo and Bartolo di Fredi (Stories of St. Francis, The Triumph of Death, 15th cent.).