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CHURCH
AND MONASTERY
OF SAN FRANCESCO
VILLA BIONDI
(Itinerary n° 6)
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"La
Madonna Assunta". Glazed terracotta attributed to
Andrea Della Robbia.
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Before
leaving Barga it is worthwhile paying a visit to the historical
monastery and church of San Francesco (St. Francis), which are located
just outside the walls of old Barga. They can be reached by going
out the Porta Mancianella and taking the road that leads down to
the hospital. The building was begun in the 15th Century by Michele
Turignoli of Barga, and was expanded extensively in succeeding generations.
In
1810, however, it was closed down by the government, which at the
time was under Napoleon. Today, little remains of the monastery
and most of the space that it occupied is now used by the hospital.
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Monument
to Pietro Tallinucci in front of the old entrance to the Hospital
of San Francesco.
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The
church, however, is still there and contains several important works
of art attributed to the workshop of the Della Robbia Brothers.
These include the altar pieces of the Assumption (Pala dell'Assunzione),
the Nativity, and the Stigmata, and the two statues of Sant'Andrea
(St. Andrew) and Sant'Antonio Abate (the Abbot St. Anthony), respectively,
which are located next to the Pala dell'Assunzione behind the main
altar. On the main altar itself is a beautiful tabernacle sculpted
in pietra serena.
Other
Della Robbian works which used to be in the church or monastery
are now located elsewhere, such as the unglazed altar piece and
another tabernacle, now in the Duomo; The Last Supper, which used
to be in the refectory and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
in London, and a terracotta piece now in the Louvre, in Paris.
Still
in the church, at the left of the nave, is the Chapel of Santa Maria
della Grazie. It was this chapel that
Michele
Turignoli used in 1471 as the nucleus for the new monastery and
church.
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Altar piece of the "Stigmate".
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Inside
the chapel you can find the vestments of Michele Turignoli and a
painting of the Madonna delle Grazie, by an unknown 15th Century
artist. Here also, next to the altar of the Madonna, there used
to be a statue of the Archangel Gabriel and one of the Virgin (Vergine
Annunziata), attributed to Giovanni della Robbia, but they were
removed at the beginning of the last century.
Past
the hospital of San Francesco, about a kilometre further on, is
the 18th Century villa which, up until the beginning of the twentieth
century, belonged to the Bertacchi. It now belongs to the Biondi
family who have made important contributions in the fields of medicine,
jurisprudence and politics, evidence for which can be found inside
the villa.
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The Villa Biondi. |
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| Altar
Piece of the Nativity. |
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| Vincenzo
Gonnella: Copper relief of St. Francis. |
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