Church of San Pietro (Grosseto)

The Church of San Pietro It is the oldest religious building in the city of Grosseto.

The church is located along Corso Carducci, the main street of the historic city center, near the crossroads that leads to the nearby churches of the Bigi and San Francesco.

The church of San Pietro was built in the early medieval era as a Plebana stations along the stretch of the Via Aurelia. In fact, the ancient Roman consular road crossed the city center, following the current course of Corso Carducci, which connects Piazza Dante to Porta Nuova. The position of the Church was at the northern end of the medieval historic center and was on the same axis, at the whose opposite southern end the lost church of San Giorgio stood. Furthermore, the distance between these two churches along the North-South director was identical to the one that included between the church of San Michele and the church of Santa Lucia, both disappeared, along the west-east axis.

Remembered in the bubble of Pope Clemente III of 1188, it seems originally traced back to the eighth century, even if it has undergone substantial extensions between the IX and the XII century and the current appearance is due in part to some seventeenth -century and eighteenth -century restorations, while the bell tower It was raised in 1625, instead of a pre -existing bell tower or to complete a work that has remained unfinished over time. ^[first]

Some restorations of the facade were carried out in 1911 by Lorenzo Porciatti, while in 1952 there are some gross interventions in the interior then eliminated during the last cycle of restorations carried out between 2004 and 2005 by the architect Alberto Vera. ^[first]

The church of San Pietro is characterized by the romantic style apse with a characteristic semicircular form; The external walls come into stone, where some travertine blocks are clearly visible that break the primary coating at times. The seventeenth -century brick bell tower rises to the right of the apsidal area, resting on a found in a probable medieval era; At the top of the bell tower there is a small dome.

The side hips of the religious building are concealed by a series of buildings and buildings that have almost completely incorporated the ancient church.

The facade presents the portal preceded by a couple of steps and flanked by two pilasters, both culminating with a summit capital.

Above the portal, the facade is entirely plastered and, in the central part, a mullioned window opens, divided by a central column equipped with a valuable capital; At the top, a further small circular opening precedes the round arch.

The top part of the facade is crowned by a series of small blind arches, which rest on slightly protruding shelves outwards.

Next to the pilasters that delimit the portal, there are four bas -reliefs on the facade (two on each side), datable between the Byzantine period and the high -medieval era. A bas -relief depicts plant elements (one palmette frieze), on another there is a human figure (presumably San Leonardo), while the other two are characterized by a series of animals (a dog in the running and an eagle). ^[first]

The interior of the church is presented to a single nave, with the original Romanesque stylistic elements now lost, following various renovations that have followed each other over the centuries.

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  Left medial tile

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  Left lateral tile

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• Aldo Mazzolai, Guide of the Maremma. Paths between art and nature , Florence, Le Lettere, 1997.
• Marcella Parisi, Grosseto inside and out of town. The emotion and thought , Siena, 100 and the opposite, 2001.
• Carlo Citter, The church of San Pietro in Grosseto , Siena, new image, 2008.
• Mariagrazia Celuzza and Mauro Papa, Grosseto visible. Guide to the city and its public art , Arcidosso, Edizioni Effigi, 2013, pp. 99–102.