Sesto Fiorentino

Historic-artistic itinerary

A walk in the town centre includes a visit to the Pieve of San Martino, mentioned in some documents from the 9th century.
The façade has a 16th century portico. The interior, with one nave and two aisles, has kept the Romanesque perimeter of the 12th century. In the Pieve there are a number of works of art. Works of great importance are the large Cross painted on board by Agnolo Gaddi towards the end of the 14th century and the Madonna with child in painted and gilded plaster made in the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti in the first half of the 15th century.

Palazzo Pretorio is in Ginori Square. The coat of arms of the “podestà” who governed the city between the 15th and 16th centuries can be seen on the façade. Above the portal stands a Medici crest attributed to Pontormo’s workshop.
Not far from here is Villa Guicciardini Corsi Salviati, today it is a department of the University of Michigan. Even though the villa has kept some of the architectural elements of the original 16th century building, it is typically 17th century: the stage-like façade, the open galleries and statues, the balustrades and the overall appearance of lightness. The internal façade is decorated with towers at the corners with open galleries and large terraces ornamented with statues; the garden is embellished by ponds, small lakes, flower-beds, grottoes, small tree groves and statues. The old “limonaia” (greenhouse for lemon trees) of the villa has recently been transformed into a theatre, the Teatro della Limonaia.
World quality theatrical works are performed in this building during Intercity, an annual programme of contemporary theatre with plays by new authors.
Opposite the villa, in the Bardi Corsi Salviati garden, you can see the monument Il futuro e la memoria made of 90 ceramic tiles made in 1995 by students at the Istituto Statale d’Arte who have created this as homage to the victims of Nazi-Fascism and to the values of liberty, democracy and tolerance. As Dario Fo wrote in his presentation of this work, the monument “was evoked to sing of happiness, the feast of liberation from a grim and bloody historic nightmare”.

As you leave the town centre, alongside the factory, you can see the Richard-Ginori Museum, one of the most important museums in Italy dedicated to ceramics. After a recent reorganization, several thousand pieces have been put on exhibition to the public. These include large statues in porcelain, made around the middle of the 18th century, works from the 19th century with refined decoration, the Art Nouveau production of the early years of the 20th century and works in innovative style designed by Giò Ponti in the 20s.
Important evidence of the history of production and manufacture can be found in the Church of San Romolo a Colonnata, near the old site of the factory. The church, already recorded in the 13th century, has several objects in porcelain, and of particular value, due also to its size, is the large main altar made in 1783.
In the Church of Santa Maria and San Jacopo in Querceto there is an important altar in marbled earthenware made at the Manifattura Ginori between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. This church, which has also been recorded since the 13th century, has also a 16th century fresco attributed to Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio.