The convent and church of Santa Maria a Ripa are on the western outskirts of Empoli, in the area now called Empoli Vecchio/Santa Maria. The name comes from the old via Ripa, which ran along the bank of the Arno; the church stands at the junction of via della Repubblica, via Livornese and via Lucchese, roads that once led quickly towards Pisa and Lucca. It was a parish church already mentioned in 1109 in a document of Countess Emilia Guidi. In 1483 the Adimari, a wealthy Florentine family, with the permission of Pope Sixtus IV handed their rights over to the Friars Minor of the Observance, and the church took the name Santa Maria delle Grazie.
What to see
The works, carried out by the master mason Simone di Mariotto da Settignano, began in 1484 and must have been finished by 1510, when the Blessed Bartolomeo Magi d'Anghiari was buried there; the consecration came only on 11 July 1540. Between 1573 and 1576 a loggia with five arches was added to the façade, and its lunettes were frescoed in 1601 by Lorenzo Bonini of Bologna with Franciscan stories.
The interior is a single hall with side chapels from the second half of the sixteenth century. On the right are the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception by Jacopo Chimenti, of 1596, a copy of a painting by Vasari; the Pietà with Saints John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene and Francis by Francesco Botticini, of 1480–1490; and the martyrdom of Saint Lucy by Niccolò Tornioli, of around 1633–1634. On the left are the Madonna in glory with Saints Jerome and Ildefonsus by Giovanni Antonio Sogliani, of 1521, and a glazed terracotta altarpiece by Santi and Benedetto Buglioni, of around 1510. On the right pier of the presbytery is a glazed Saint Lucy from the workshop of Giovanni della Robbia.
Visiting
Above the entrance is an organ in carved and painted wood, in poor condition, with a core of 1632 by Agostino Romani, rebuilt in 1771 by the Tronci and again in 1840–1842 by the Paoli. Opening and Mass times should be checked beforehand.
Our editors' tip
The church's name has changed several times: just Santa Maria in 1109 and in the bull of Celestine III of 1192, Santa Maria in Castello in the bull of Alexander IV of 1258, Santa Maria a Empoli Vecchio in the church tithe records of the late thirteenth century.
