FOIANO DELLA CHIANA, MARCIANO DELLA CHIANA
The road now takes you to one of the most important farming centres in the valley, FOIANO DELLA CHIANA which was first settled in Etrusco-Roman times. Situated on high ground rising out of the plain, the township was a feudal domain of the bishops of Arezzo in the mid-13th century, and they strengthened it with a double perimeter of walls. Inside the walls, in Piazza Cavour, you find the Palazzo Comunale, a 14th-century foundation but reconstructed in the mid 16th century, and the Palazzo Granducale, which today houses the Municipal Library. This building was constructed by the Grand Duke Ferdinand II de’ Medici who would stay here whenever he was taking part in hunting trips in the district. Among the churches worth visiting is the Collegiata dei Santi Martino e Leonardo built between the 16th and 18th centuries. The brick façade encloses a single nave and six chapels. You can see the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin with Angels and Saints, painted in 1523 by Luca Signorelli who was helped by artists from his workshop, a Crucifixion with the Blessed Virgin and Saints by Orazio Porta and a Blessed Virgin with the Girdle and Saints, a glazed terracotta from 1502 ascribed to Andrea della Robbia.
Next is the Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo which, with the adjacent Dominican monastery, was built between the first and second circle of walls, at the end of the 14th century. The present façade is the result of a late Baroque remake. The interior has a single nave and three apses, and you will find a glazed terracotta altar piece depicting the Ascension of Christ, probably made at the end of the 15th century by Giovanni della Robbia, and Our Lady of the Rosary between Saints signed and dated 1652 by the painter Lorenzo Lippi. The Chiesa di Santa Maria della Fraternita has a certain interest for the visitor, as does the Chiesa di San Francesco which was completed in the early 16th century, but reconstructed and enlarged between 1756 and 1759. Here you can find an altar piece made by the workshop of Andrea della Robbia which shows Christ and the Blessed Virgin interceding with the Eternal Father and, by the same circle, a Blessed Virgin in the act of Swooning.
Along the road which goes from Foiano to Marciano della Chiana, in the locality of Pozzo, stands the Tempietto di Santo Stefano della Vittoria. Made in 1572 and perhaps to a design by Giorgio Vasari, the building celebrates the annexation of Siena to the domain of Cosimo I de’ Medici which followed after the Battle of Scannagallo in 1554. To show how important these places were, first to the Florentine Republic, and then to the Grand Duchy of the Medici family, the arx of MARCIANO DELLA CHIANA became a fortified citadel in Sienese style with perimeter walls, some sections of which still remain. Inside the walls, you will see the Chiesa dei Santi Andrea e Stefano with some art works of a certain importance, including the Madonna and Child Enthroned between St James and St Christopher by Bartolomeo della Gatta from 1493.
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