San Miniato is a town and comune in the province of Pisa, in the region of Tuscany, Italy.
San Miniato sits at an historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno valley between the valleys of Egola and Elsa. It used to carry the additional sobriquet al Tedesco ("[to] the German") to distinguish it from the convent of San Miniato al Monte in Florence, which is about forty kilometers far to the north east.
Main Sights:
The city is enclosed within a well-preserved medieval precinct. Main landmarks include:
- The Tower of Frederick.
- The Duomo (Cathedral), dedicated to both Sant'Assunta and Santo Genesio or Saint Genesius of Rome.
- The Diocesan Museum, next to the cathedral.
- Palazzo dei Vicari, built by Emperor Otto IV during the 12th century.
- Palazzo Comunale. This 14th century building is still San Miniato's Town Hall.
- The church of San Francesco. Originally built in the early 13th century with a Romanesque facade.
- The church of San Domenico was originally constructed in the 14th century, but has an incomplete façade.
- Convent of San Francesco.
Other buildings and monuments worth seeing include the Bishop's Sanctuary, with a Baroque façade in the design of an amphitheater, designed by Cigoli and the Sanctuary of the Crucifix, recently restored, the desanctified Chiesa di San Martino, which has done duty as a convent, and then a prison, but which will now be used for conventions.
There are also a number of Renaissance palazzi, built by such aristocratic families as the Roffia, Grifoni, Formichini and the Bonapartes, ancestors of Napoleon.
