TEMPIO DI SAN BIAGIO
Pure marvel of Renaissance art attributed to Antonio da Sangallo, one of the best architects of the time.
Built between 1518 and 1545, this pure marvel of Renaissance art, in blond stone and harmonious lines, is attributed to Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, one of the best architects of the time. The Saint-Blaise temple was built away from the city, in a green valley, on the site of an old early Christian church dedicated to Mary. This location, in the heart of a superb landscape, underlines its grandeur.
The origin of this church is linked to a miraculous event that occurred on April 23, 1518, when two servants, Antilia and Camilla, and a peasant named Toto, passed in front of a fresco representing the Virgin and Child and Saint Francis, and saw the Virgin open and close her eyes, as if she was alive.
The plan centred on a Greek cross of the Saint-Blaise temple is crowned by a dome on a drum. The architecture of the bell tower plays on alternating forms: decreasing heights, straight and curved lines; it is topped by an eight-sided pyramid. Solemn, the interior houses, near the main altar, a lectern made by Giannozzo and Lisandro di Pietro Albertini in 1584, as well as, in the niches, statues of saints sculpted by Ottaviano Lazzarini in 1617. Pope Leo X himself came to inaugurate this monumental church, designed as an ancient temple, and considered one of the most successful achievements of Christian architecture in the Tuscan Renaissance. In short, a 16th century Tuscan masterpiece to discover during your stay in Montepulciano.
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