Basilica di San Miniato al Monte

A visit to Basilica di San Miniato al Monte

The Basilica di San Miniato al Monte stands atop one of the highest points in Florence, and has been described as the finest Romanesque structure in Tuscany.

St Minias was Florence’s first martyr, possibly a Greek merchant or an Armenian prince, who left his home to make a pilgrimage to Rome. In about 250, he arrived in Florence and set up home as a hermit. He was beheaded during the anti-Christian persecutions of the Emperor Decius and was then said to have picked up his head, crossed the Arno and walked up the hill of Mons Fiorentinus to his hermitage. A shrine was later erected at this spot and there was a chapel there by the 8th century. Construction of the present church was begun in 1013 by Bishop Alibrando and it was endowed by the Emperor Henry II.

The geometrically patterned marble façade was probably begun in about 1090. The campanile collapsed in 1499 and was replaced in 1523. The crypt is the oldest part of the church and the high altar supposedly contains the bones of St Minias himself (although there is evidence that these were removed to Metz before the church was even built).

Adjacent to the church is the fine cloister, begun in around 1425, and the fortified bishop’s palace, built in 1295 and later used as a barracks and a hospital. The whole complex is surrounded by defensive walls, originally built hastily by Michelangelo during the siege and in 1553 expanded into a true fortress (fortezza) by Cosimo I. The walls now enclose a large cemetery, the Porte Sante, laid out in 1854.