The Parish Church of San Romolo in Gaville

“The other was he for whom thou, Gaville, weepest.”

Thus spoke Dante Alighieri in the XXV canto of the Inferno of the Divine Comedy, referring to the reprisal carried out by the Guelph Cavalcanti family against the inhabitants of the Castle of Gaville, where Francesco de’ Cavalcanti (known as the Squint-Eyed) had been killed.

The Pieve of San Romolo in Gaville stands on a hill surrounded by a splendid olive grove, where the Via Adrianea once passed, connecting Valdambra to Florence. In the rooms in front of the church is the beautiful Museum of Peasant Civilisation which offers a glimpse into the rural life of the past.

The Pieve was built between 1007 and 1070 near the pre-existing watchtower by the will of the Ubertini family, who owned the nearby Castle of Gaville, considered in medieval times one of the most powerful in the Florentine Valdarno.

The pieve had a period of great splendour, as it exercised its jurisdiction over more than 30 peoples, including that of Figline. From 1175 onwards, the pieve saw its jurisdiction over the surrounding areas halved and then gradually reduced due to the continuous opposition of the Ubertini family to the choices of the Bishop of Fiesole.

The facade of the church is characterised by its extreme simplicity. From the outside you can see the canonical three naves and the portal containing a lunette unfortunately without the Sienese school fresco, the sinopia of which is kept inside the rectory. The double-arched window placed above the lunette had been walled up during the works of the 1700s but brought to light with its central capital during the restorations of the 1900s.

The bell tower, present on the facade, is divided into two parts based on the material used for its construction. The lower part is evidently the oldest, of Lombard origin, while the upper part was made with different material in the eighteenth century.

Inside, the three naves are divided by two rows of sandstone columns and surmounted by Romanesque capitals and round arches. Capitals with phytomorphic motifs, accompanied by those that illustrate sacred texts and others that narrate the creation of the world. The first and third capitals on the left, for example, have confronted birds inscribed in a circle and an eagle, a male and a female figure to whom a winged animal bites the breast.

Inside the church is preserved an Annunciation of the Ghirlandaio school and the sinopia of the fresco that once was located inside the lunette of the facade.