Chiesa di San Pietro, Badia a Cerreto

A country church that for centuries has preserved one of the masterpieces of the Florentine Renaissance

The former Camaldolese abbey of San Pietro is located along the road from Gambassi Terme to Certaldo. Historical sources indicate that the construction of the first hermitage took place between 1059 and 1072. The Camaldolese remained there until 1421, when Pope Martin V united it with the Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. The final suppression took place in 1652, although pastoral services for the community of Badia a Cerreto have always been carried out there.

Were it not for the small cross that stands out at the intersection of the roof pitches, the façade of St. Peter’s would say little about its religious function: modest, completely plastered in white, it is easily confused with a dwelling and it seems impossible that for more than three centuries it has preserved Lorenzo Monaco’s The Coronation of the Virgin, one of the masterpieces of the Florentine Renaissance now housed in the Uffizi.

The altarpiece came from the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence – the monastery where Lorenzo Monaco himself took his vows – and upon its return, the church of Badia a Cerreto obtained a painting by Francesco Soderini, a Virgin and Child between Saints Nun and Augustine dated 1726.

Inside, the wooden truss roof rests on eight pilasters surmounted by sandstone capitals sculpted with plant motifs. The rectangular floor plan has been reduced in length from the presbytery. The former monastery buildings are now private homes