Badia a Conèo: a Romanesque church near Colle

Just beyond Colle Alta, you reach the crossroads in Le Grazie, here you take the provincial road n ° 27 in the direction of Casole d’Elsa, a little more than a kilometer away, turn right following a small road bordered by two cypresses with indication Badia a Conèo.

Continue for a couple of kilometers until, on the left you reach the splendid church of Badia a Conèo.

Badia a Conèo was one of the oldest monasteries of the Vallombrosians, part of the Colle della Diocesi plebanate of Volterra, the Abbey of Santa Maria Assunta in Conèo became part of the Vallombrosan congregation between 1073 and 1076, in the 16th century it was probably commenda of Alessandro Farnese (the future Pope Paul III).

A SENESE ROMANIC STYLE CHURCH

It was one of the many abbeys given in commendation to the families of the popes, when in 1592 the assets of the Badia were given to the new episcopal cathedral of Colle, and the church of Conèo was declared baptismal.

Of the ancient Badia, today the Romanesque-Sienese style church of Santa Maria is conserved, consecrated in 1123. The plan of the church is a Latin cross, with a single nave completed by a transept and with a dome on pendentives with an octagonal external lantern.

The façade has a partition in Volterra style arches. In the presbytery there are three apses of which only the central one shows the curvature on the outside. While the interior, which cannot be visited, is divided by a transverse arch resting on hanging half-columns with capitals decorated with abstract motifs and human heads.

On the back of the Badia there is a stretch of medieval cobbled road that connects it with the houses of Conèo. Not far from Badia, in the botro Conro valley, on the left, just below Badia is an interesting Grand Ducal aqueduct.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• AA. VV. “Toscana” Guide Rosse Touring Club Italiano, 2007
• Tigler, Guido “Toscana romanica” Jaca Book, Milano, 2006
• Poli Vittorio “Valdelsa Romanica” 1985, Nencini