Canonica di San Giovanni a Varna

A church of late Romanesque design with a single nave.

A few kilometres from Gambassi, in the locality of Varna, is the Rectory of San Giovanni.

Documents testify to its existence as early as 1230 when it was among the places damaged by the Volterra people during a military campaign against San Gimignano, which, at the time, had already extended its control over the Gambassi territory.

In 1577 the oratory of the Company of the Blessed Sacrament was built next to it, where the high altar was later moved. In 1705 the facade underwent some changes and the perimeter walls were raised. In 1785 the rectory of San Giovanni became a baptismal parish church. Its interior houses a copy of Andrea del Sarto’s The Madonna and Child with Saints.