Abbey of San Galgano and Museo Civico e Diocesano di Arte Sacra of Chiusdino

ABBEY OF SAN GALGANO. THE VISIT

In the last years of his life Galgano had come into contact with the Cistercians that founded the first community of monks which was already active in 1201.
Under the impulse of this primitive monastic nucleus, which had been joined by many Sienese nobles and some monks coming directly from the abbey of Clairvaux, in 1218 construction work began on the abbey in the plain of Merse below.
Maybe the designer was Donnus Johannes who had completed the work in the Abbey of Casamari the previous year.
Today the Abbey has no roof and no floor, replaced by ground floor. It has a Latin cross plan 69 metres long and is completed with a wide transept.
The interior space is divided longitudinally into three naves of 16 arcades of cruciform pillars.
A visit to the Abbey will make you enjoy all the charm of an ancient medieval monastery. 


MUSEO CIVICO E DIOCESANO DI ARTE SACRA OF CHIUSDINO. THE VISIT

Inaugurated in 2015 in the historic Palazzo Taddei, the Museum is located in the historic centre of Chiusdino.
It collects numerous works of art, bas-reliefs, paintings on wood and canvas, sacred goldsmith's art, ex voto, made between the 12th and 19th century and mostly coming from the parish churches and chapels of the territory.
Currently it also houses the reliquary of the Sacred Head of St. Galgano, a figurative testimony of exceptional interest to the production of medieval European goldsmithery in the second half of the 13th century.