San Giusto al Pinone

• … and they used to rinse clothes in the Ombrone
• After September 8th 1943
• Between the twenties and thirties
• Corrado Capecchi, military internee
  • A medal (at last) for Corrado
  • The joke of the military internees
• Five places of Romanesque Carmignano
• Friar Bocci, at the beginning of the twentieth century
• From archaeologists to farmers
• Gino Balena
• Gino di Fico
• Historical shops in Carmignano
• In the name of Jesus and Saint Peter, may the sty go away
• Liberation day
• Matteucci, the ‘forgotten’ bishop
• Soldier in Greece
• Stories from a school notebook
• Stories of donkeys and jockeys
• Stories of mayors and town councils in Carmignano
• Stories of our home
• Stories of war and displaced persons
• The Battistina and other scary stories
• The colours of the rioni
• The Golden Roster
• The last sharecropper in Carmignano
• The siege in memory of the Princess
• The tree of liberty in Carmignano
• Ugo Contini Bonacossi
• Vittorio’s bicycles
• When the river Arno was fordable ..
• When they were digging pietra serena between Arno and Ombrone
• The colours of Carmignano, a small guide for tourists
  • Ancient churches and abbeys. Montalbano, a crossroads for pilgrims.
    • San Giusto al Pinone
    • San Jacopo in Capezzana
    • San Leonardo in Artimino
    • San Lorenzo in Montalbiolo
    • San Martino in Campo
    • San Michele amarcord
      • San Michele, the theater takes to the streets
• Itineraries for just a few days or more
  • Walking through history and nature
  • A Sunday devoted to the discovery of Artimino
  • A few words about the hamlets of Carmignano
  • The Fontina and Castagnati Lake
• Guides to download

It ‘s a typical religious building of the twelfth century, built of sandstone with a transept with three apses, with the addition of a massive bell tower whose structure is apparently military. The Abbey, now a national monument, seems to have been the seat of a small monastic community. The exterior walls attests its long construction phase: the arch of the portal and the mullioned window above, in green and white marble, are affected by Pratese and Pistoiese Romanesque. The interior, instead, bears the signs of Cluniac architecture influence, in the high and narrow nave and in the easing chancel. Remarkable is the rare crypt with columns, accessible only from the outside, and which has undergone several renovations over time. In the Middle Ages the abbey stood along an important communication route between northern and southern Italy. Every day it was walked by countless pilgrims and the abbey was a safe haven for those who, going through the woods of the Montalbano, at the time wild and dangerous , were taken by surprise by nightfall. It was the “Sperduta,” a church bell, to perform the task of guiding travellers in trouble and rally them at sunset, before the doors were shut and the forests became the domain of wolves and brigands’ raids. Unfortunately for some years now, the Abbey of San Giusto al Pinone has been waiting for restoration work and can only be viewed from the outside.

How to get there. From Carmignano take Via Vergheretana.
After the village of Santa Cristina in Mezzana continue uphill on the county road to località Pinone. In the direction Vitolini-Vinci, after about 500 metres turn left and in a glade of oaks, cedars and pines is the Abbey.
(Partly taken from “Chiese romaniche nel Montalbano” brochure of the Apt of Prato by Katia Corrado)