Parish church of San Michele and San Francesco
The original nucleus of the Parish Church of San Michele and Francesco is very ancient. In fact, the current church was built around 1330 on the pre-existence of a convent with an adjoining oratory dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, built in the place where he preached in 1211. Over the centuries, the church has undergone various modifications until it found its definitive location in 1782, preserving traces of the original building on the left side.
After the damage suffered during the Second World War, the church was restored with an approach that eliminated the additions from the 17th and 18th centuries. The gabled façade is flanked by a five-arched loggia supported by 18th-century Tuscan columns. The wide nave of the church is covered by wooden trusses and ends with three chapels decorated with frescoes and sculptures dating from the 15th to the 18th century. The walls of the nave are plastered and there are six side altars in seventeenth-century style, three on each side, which house works of art ranging from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.
Among these, there is the famous Visitation by the sixteenth-century painter Pontormo, which represents a wonderful example of early Florentine Mannerism. This oil painting, commissioned by the Pinadori family, was realized between 1528-29 and placed in its current location in 1740.
The Parish Church also houses detached frescoes dating back to the 15th century and interesting paintings from the 15th-17th centuries, which further enrich the artistic and historical heritage of this enchanting place.
Come and visit the Parish Church of San Michele and Francesco and let yourself be won over by its extraordinary atmosphere of spirituality and beauty, its thousand-year history and the works of art that await you in this corner of Tuscany.
N.B. The church is temporarily closed for restoration work.
From October 2024 the Visitation will be temporarily exhibited at the Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano, awaiting the end of the restoration work on the church.
Information
Address: Piazza Santi Francesco e Michele, 1, Carmignano
Ticket: free entrance
Phone: 055 8712046
GPX coordinates: 43.812311,11.0165019
