Pieve di Gropina: a splendid Romanesque church

The Pieve of Gropina, is located about 2 km from Loro Ciuffenna, on the Via dei Sette Ponti (road of the Seven Bridges) towards San Giustino, to get there take a detour to the right, which after 800 metres from the junction leading to the village of Gropina.

A MASTERPIECE OF ROMANIC ART

The beautiful Romanesque church of Pieve of San Pietro or Gropina, is one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in Tuscany. It was built around the year one thousand and has a façade in large drafts of stone, with mullioned windows corresponding to the two aisles and a mullioned window overlooking the front door, on the architrave of the door is the date 1422, probably referring to a restoration, the arms of Leo X which dominates the architrave bears the date 1522.

The church’s interior is divided into three naves with odd capitals (the columns of the left side relate episodes from the Old and New Testaments, in the right side the columns recall the pre-Christian, Etruscan and Eastern arts), the central nave is covered by a gable roof supported by wooden trusses.

The interior of the Pieve di Gropina, Loro Ciuffenna, Arezzo. Author and Copyright Marco Ramerini

The apse of the church is semicircular with a double row of columns and has three single windows and six eyes. Leaning against a column in the right nave is the pulpit (from eighth century), lavishly decorated, supported by two knotted columns, decoration that is also present in the central column of the exterior decoration of the apse. Very beautiful is the outside view of the apse with the adjacent bell tower dating from 1233, perhaps planted on a Lombard tower.

The church is already mentioned in 774. Under the floor of the present church there are the remains of two successive smaller churches: a first church dating back to the V-VI century and a second church with two naves of the VIII-IX century of Lombard origin, which is accessed via a staircase located in the right nave of the church.

INFORMATIONS

Hours: 8-12 and 15-17 Admission Free

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• AA. VV. “Toscana” Guide Rosse Touring Club Italiano, 2007
• Fabbri Carlo; Fornasari Liletta “La Pieve di Gropina, arte e storia” Servizio Editoriale Fiesolano, 2005
• Tigler, Guido “Toscana romanica” Jaca Book, Milano, 2006