The parish church of San Giuliano stands at Pieve a Settimo, a village of Scandicci, on the via Pisana. It is the oldest church in the area: it may already have existed in the last years of the Lombard kingdom, is indirectly documented from 774 and with certainty from August 866. Together with the nearby tower of Settimo it was part of the system controlling the Valdarno west of Florence, including the crossing of the Arno a little to the north.
What to see
The church is a Romanesque basilica with three naves, divided by piers that encase the original columns, and three apses; the bell tower, at the north-east corner, is dated 1143 and built of alberese limestone. From 1483 the patronage passed to the Mannelli family, whose arms are under the gable of the façade, and the small cloister with elegant Ionic columns may date from those years; today it holds a second-century Roman sarcophagus with putti, garlands and masks. Between 1656 and 1666 the parish priest Bartolomeo Baldini renewed the church in Baroque style, with four altars and the portico on the façade; in 1735 the false barrel vault was added.
On the first altar on the right is the terracotta Madonna dei Fiori, attributed to the school of Antonio Rossellino or Benedetto da Maiano, and also to Donatello's workshop. In the apse Cosimo Ulivelli painted in 1655 the Coronation of the Virgin between Saint Julian and Saint Bartholomew, who is said to have the face of the priest Baldini. On the jambs of the portal remain two fragments of a thirteenth-century inscription.
Visiting
The church is at Pieve a Settimo, on the via Pisana; it was restored between 2007 and 2011. Opening hours should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
This church is where Masolino da Panicale's Saint Julian, painted around 1423-1425 for the Carnesecchi triptych, came from: today it is in the Diocesan Museum of Santo Stefano al Ponte in Florence.
