Church San Bartolo - San Gimignano - Tuscany

The church is located outside the Porta Cellolese, which belonged to the first wall of San Gimignano, and is traditionally identified as the Hiero-Solimitic Hospital of San Matteo, built in 1173 along the Via Francigena.

It is a simple brick building with a single nave with a half-timbered roof and no apse.

The facade is one of the most important episodes of Romanesque architecture in Valdelsa, the result of the clear influence of Lucchese and Pisan models. The facade is divided into two blind galleries of five arcades.

The interior shows a difference in level that separates the presbyterium from the rest of the church. Interesting is the decoration in the lunette of the portal arch with numerous six-petalled rosettes, painted in red, framed by stylized bunches.

Inside is a Florentine wooden crucifix from the 15th century and two lunettes on canvas by Niccolò Lapi: Nativity of Mary and Saints Adoring the Miraculous Annunciation of Florence.

Willem Vandenameele