The abbey of Santi Salvatore e Lorenzo, known as Badia a Settimo, is a fortified abbey complex in the municipality of Scandicci, near Florence. It was one of the five abbeys placed as if at the cardinal points of the city: the Badia Fiesolana to the north, Settimo to the west, San Miniato to the south, Ripoli to the east and the Badia Fiorentina at the centre. In 1004 the Cadolingi counts called the Cluniac Benedictines here to found an abbey beside an existing oratory of San Salvatore.
What to see
The abbey's history is full of episodes: on 13 February 1068, in front of the church, Peter Igneus underwent the famous ordeal by fire to prove the corruption of Bishop Pietro Mezzabarba; from 1236, on the orders of Pope Gregory IX, the Cistercians of San Galgano settled here, enlarged it and in 1378 fortified it. The stepped façade shows its various phases: Romanesque in the facing of limestone, pietraforte and serpentine, Gothic in the rose window, Renaissance in the portals. The bell tower, round at the base and then hexagonal, bears a plaque of 1210; knocked down in 1944, it was rebuilt as it was in 1957.
The three-nave interior now looks as it did in the seventeenth century. There are the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence by Domenico Buti of 1574, the sarcophagus of the Cadolingi countesses Cilla and Gasdia, who died in 1096, an example of Florentine Romanesque, and Giuliano da Maiano's tabernacle of 1441. The main chapel has a glazed terracotta frieze by Benedetto Buglioni with cherubs' heads; of the frescoes painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1487 two roundels remain, with the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate. The high altar, consecrated in 1639, is in pietre dure inlay.
Visiting
The abbey is at Badia a Settimo, in the municipality of Scandicci. Opening hours and visits should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
Since 1946 the abbey has held the remains of the poet Dino Campana, who spent the last years of his life in the nearby villa of Castelpulci.
