Pieve di San Giovanni Battista Decollato in Montemurlo
An ancient testimony in the village square
The parish church of San Giovanni Battista Decollato in Montemurlo has an ancient and much-discussed history; we find the first trace of it when Otto III on the occasion of his coronation as emperor (995), descends to Italy on his way to Rome and on his journey confirms the possessions of the Bishop of Pistoia, among which the parish church is noted.
It has a simple, single-nave layout with presbytery and choir. Originally, the pieve was very small in size, and it is only during the 1500s that we see the first extension works implemented by the humanist Bartolomeo Fonzio, parish priest in Montemurlo from 1494 to 1520, who had the rectory and cloister built next to the church whose round arches and columns with Corinthian capital, however, are now walled up.
The parish is protected by an imposing bell tower that originally served as a watchtower. Later, in the first half of the 16th century, it was transformed and refined, with the addition of the wide mullioned windows that we see on each side, surmounted by brick arches.
Entering the church we pass through a loggia, built in the 17th century, supported by brick columns with Ionic-inspired capitals. The interior, with a wooden roof truss, is enriched by four aedicule altars including a 16th century one, a model for the others built two centuries later. On the altars and walls of the chancel, valuable paintings by painters Francesco Granacci, Giovanni Stradano, Matteo Rosselli and Giacinto Fabroni.
