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Oratories Museums Tabernacles Cultural Assets Open Museum of the "Five Green Lands"

ORATORIES

Spinello Aretino, Conversion of the Empress, detail of fresco, Oratory of S. Caterina delle Ruote

The Oratory of S. Caterina delle Ruote, commissioned by the Florentine family of the Alberti around 1354, stands close by the Cemetery of Ponte a Ema.

Interior of the Oratory of S. Caterina delle Ruote at Rimezzano

Built in rows of limestone, the oratory has a single nave divided into two bays by a cross vault and a small rectangular apse. The interior contains some extremely beautiful frescoes that tell the story of the life of the Princess and martyr, St. Catherine of Alexandria, or of the Wheel, because of the way she was martyred. The cycle of frescoes was started in around 1360 by the Maestro of Barberino and by Pietro Nelli, who also carried out the decoration in the area of the apse and on the great arch in front of it; it was later completed at the wish of Benedetto Alberti, from 1387, by the brilliant artist of late Gothic painting, Spinello Aretino.
The Town Council of Bagno a Ripoli, which now owns the oratory, started work on its restoration in 1992 because its bad state of neglect had caused serious damage to its architectural structure and the works of art. This restoration has now been completed and the splendid Oratory of S. Caterina is once more open to the public.





Two other important oratories can also be found, fairly close to each other, on the Plain of Ripoli. The Oratory of S.S. Annunziata According to many scholars, the oratory of S.S. Annunziata is the work of Michelozzo or his school. The interior of this religious building of Renaissance times is particularly characteristic: a single hall, roofed over with truss beams held up by large carved corbels, concluding in a square apse with vaulted ceiling and capitals in local stone. It once contained an altarpiece by Filippi Lippi which, after a succession of events, is now in a museum in Rome. The exterior is instead decorated with an unusual cornice of pointed bricks laid between the top of the walls and the roof. It is now an artist's studio and can therefore only be visited on request


Anche l'Oratory of the Crocifisso del Lume (Crucifix of the Lamp), or at Pratello, is also extremely old because it was originally a tabernacle and transformed into an Oratory at the end of the 15th century by the Nasi family, owners of the Villa of Pratello nearby. A great many alterations have been carried out since on the exterior and have contributed towards further enlivening its Baroque architecture. One of the most original elements to be found here is the elegant little dome tiled with slim and rounded terracotta slabs, laid one on top of another. People passing through the Vale of Ripoli, however hurried and innattentive, will find it hard to miss this small building of "minor" religious importance, one of the halting places in the past for the traditional procession in May dedicated to the Holy Cross.

MUSEI

Glass vases with coinage stamp second half of 1st - late 2nd century A.D.

ANTIQUARIUM
A small but significant Antiquarium has recently been opened in the centre of Bagno a Ripoli, the main town of the borough. For centuries the entire area has occupied a favourable position as a meeting point for several main routes of communication that were not however just of local importance; this has meant that a series of archeological remains have survived to this day:

Roman coins

1) parts of a Roman building with brick arches and ceilings in Via della Nave, dating from the Imperial Roman period; 2) removable remains (in particular a large number of coins) dating from the Etruscan-Hellenistic or late Republican era, again in Via della Nave; 3) Campo Cappelletti, Antella: a country villa that dates from the Imperial Roman period; 4) the 'Tular' of Gavignano, an Etruscan inscription on a piece of sandstone, found on the banks of the Borro of Calcinaia. Apart from the "Tular" of Gavignano, the Antiquarium also contains several exhibits from the archeological sites mentioned above.

Address: "Antiquarium", Via di Ritortoli n. 6
For further information: Bagno a Ripoli Town Council Cultural Office, ph. 055/6390356-7

TABERNACLES

The large number of tabernacles decorating the roads and houses in the district are reminiscent of an ancient custom that still exists even today. They were placed on the walls of houses, either as a protective measure or as a reminder of miraculous events, or else built along the main roads to accompany the path of travellers; they are an extremely useful instrument for discovering more about the way people lived as well as being a truly pure and spontaneous expression of popular worship. Many of the tabernacles that are still intact contain modern reliefs, usually in ceramics or plaster, that imitate Renaissance compositions; the Tabernacle of the Monastery in Via di Montisoni, decorated with the coat of arms of the Peruzzi family and containing a modern copy of the Madonna of Impruneta, is a case in point; other examples can be found on the Arch of the Camicia and in Via di Montisoni, on the farm of Poggio di Reto, both of which contain 18th century terracottas portraying the Virgin Mary and Child.
One of the best known painted tabernacles is situated beside the stream of Antella; rebuilt in modern times, it contains a painting of the "Madonna and the Child Jesus" frescoed in the mid 15th century by Paolo Schiavo, who was in great request for this kind of work because of his skill in giving the traditional iconographic models a Renaissance naturalism. A similar tabernacle, attributed to the same painter and formerly in one of the rooms of the canons' house, can now be admired in the Parish Church of Antella. A elegant 15th century aedicola in carved local grey stone, containing a fresco of the "Madonna in Majesty between St. Martin and St. Blaise" of the same period, with an "Annunciation" on the exterior, can be found at Bagno a Ripoli itself, on the building, formerly Palazzo Pretorio, that stands on the crossroads with Via della Nave. Another Renaissance tabernacle stands in Via della Martellina, or del Poggio and can be reached up a flight of steps; it still contains a beautiful sinopite of the "Madonna enthroned between St. John the Baptist and St. Jerome", of late 15th century Florentine school; a late 15th century "Madonna" in glazed terracotta from the Della Robbia workshop can instead be found in the same street, on the corner with Via dei Rosai. Going back to the main provincial road, we almost immediately come to a 15th century tabernacle of the "Madonna and Child enthroned", by Bicci di Lorenzo, followed, a little further on, in Via della Croce, by an elegant tabernacle raised up on local stone columns containing a late 14th century fresco of the "Virgin Mary enthroned with Saints", attributed to Niccol˜ di Pietro Gerini. A frescoed aedicola dipicting "The Incredulity of St. Thomas" of late 14th century Florentine School stands on the external wall of the small church of S.Maria at Rignalla, while the fresco of the "Madonna of the Good Journey", carried out by a contemporary painter, the late Pietro Annigoni, is built at the corner of the road that leads to the Church of S. Martino ai Cipressi.

CULTURAL ASSETS

THE THEATRE OF ANTELLA
The restoration of what was formerly the Casa del Popolo at Antella should be completed in 1999. The building is of particular architectural and historic importance. Constructed in 1891 - and therefore contemporary with the Monumental Cemetery of Antella - the facade is adorned with some rather fine frescoes in Liberty style, a style that is repeated in the auditorium inside, while the fixtures are decorated with coloured motifs.
The restoration aims to recreate the same spirit as the period in which the building was originally planned and built, by using materials that are as close as possible to those used at the time, while also trying to take it back to what it was originally designed for, in other words, a place where various kinds of performances could be held. From the historical point of view, the signs of its initial use as the headquarters of the Society of Mutual Aid, its successive transformation into the Casa del Fascio (Fascist Headquarters), in the thirties, and later still into the Casa del Popolo (Communist Party Social Club), after the war, can still be seen quite clearly
The restructuring of the building includes: 1) an internal theatre/cinema (to seat about 150); 2) a civic centre (on the ground floor); 3) various rooms for use as a Youth Centre, to be managed by the various associations that exist in the district; 4) the new headquarters of the Filarmonica "Luigi Cherubini" and the "Gino Ravenni" School of Music, for concerts and didactic activities, including fully equipped rehearsal rooms); 5) an open-air summer cinema/theatre (to seat about 150), rebuilt as it was just after the war. This structure is only possible because the original "double facing" stage - giving onto the internal auditorium as well as the garden - still exists, together with a large sliding door that can be opened to create a "proscenium" towards the exterior.

OPEN MUSEUM

Regione Toscana - Provincia di Firenze

WELCOME
to the Open Museum of the Five Green Lands
If the title suggests that you have been introduced into a typical MUSEUM, we are really sorry, you are completely wrong!!!
This time our Museum is the Territory of Tuscany, with its lands, fields, roads and paths, its hill towns designed by medioeval architects, parish churches (pievi), churches, old hospital (spedali), bridges, mills, infinite ÒtracesÓ left by our ancesters.
Our land is its own museum:
A LIVING MUSEUM - AN OPEN MUSEUM
This is the basic idea of the Open Museum, a project that the City Governments of Bagno a Ripoli, Figline Valdarno, Greve in Chianti, Incisa in Val D'Arno and Rignano sull'Arno, the"Five Green Lands", have undertaken together in recent years for a greater appretiation of their lands. These territories are united by their culture and history and bound by the River Arno, to the south-east of Florence, and the valleys of the Ema and Greve Rivers, to the south. At the same time there is a desire to deepen the knowledge and to facilitate enjoyment and traveling, overcaming the concept of a Museum as a closed space and as unique custodian of artifacts and history.
All the Territory and Cultural Assets (artistic, environmental, natural, istorical) have been condidered in their interity, as a means of educating and developing culture, without forgetting that their value is enriched by the very context in which they situated, by the environment and the society in which they developed: in this way, geograpy and history, past and present are fused into a limitless project.
The Open Museum is divided into thematic structures, called "sistems" (from art to traveling, from agriculture to landscape, from industry to archeology), that gradually will be developed and structured in itineraries spread over the whole territory and easily available In this way, research, restauration, the appretiation and the promotion of the territory will be developed : culture and tourism together, concerning the five green lands.

Today the plan is materializing offering the public Three Itineraries from the first "sistem" entitled "People, Art, Devotion" - Itineraries in the Five Green Lands" which being divided between ecclesiatical buildings, religious architecture and art collections, are also part of another regional culture initiative "Places of Faifh"(I Luoghi della Fede).
Each itinery will be repited twice on fixed dates, always on saturdays, from 1 May to 5 June 1999, and we will anable you to enjoy fascinating places at a leisurely pace, off the typical tourists tracks, rich in history and art, and immersed in magnificent scenery.
Travel by specially reserved coach, guided visits conducted by art historians, excellent lunches in sociable surroundings, guide-books available.
Fee per person for each tour: 30.000 lire (including trasport, guides, museum entrance fees. Lunch is not included). Advanced booking required.

Information and Reservations:
Ufficio Cultura Comune di Bagno a Ripoli
Via F.lli Orsi, 18 - ph. 055-6390356/357
Monday to Friday 8,30-12,30; Tuesday and Thursday 15.00-18.00

by:
Francesca Formichi Remy de Turique