Description
The church of San Pietro alla Magione, on Via Camollia, is a Romanesque stone church, approached by a flight of steps, where the Knights Templar kept a hospice for pilgrims. What remains is a bell gable and crosses carved into the masonry.
The most curious sign is the Templar crosses carved in the stone of the side. Behind, next to the apse, stands the bell gable, typical of Templar commanderies.
The gabled facade, in stone and Romanesque style (12th or 13th century), has a 14th-century Gothic portal. The crowning with small arches was redone in an arbitrary way in the early 20th century. On the right is a brick chapel of 1523-1526, an ex-voto for the plague.
The interior is simple and austere: a single nave, with high, narrow windows, a raised presbytery, an apse and a timber-truss roof. The present look is owed to the restorations of 1957.
Among the works are a 14th-century Gothic niche for keeping the sacred vessels during Mass and fragments of monochrome frescoes by Cristoforo di Bindoccio and Meo di Pero, from the late 14th century, which come from a room of the old hospice.
In the right-hand chapel is a Madonna and Child by Bartolomeo Neroni, known as Il Riccio, from the 16th century, and a Madonna with Saints John the Baptist and Peter by Diego Pesco, from 1760.
The church is documented from 998 and belonged to the Knights Templar from at least the 12th century: a document of 1148 says so. They kept a hospice for pilgrims here, "la Magione", which gave the church its name.
In 1312 the Templars were suppressed and the church passed to the Knights Hospitaller, the future Knights of Malta, and later to the diocese, of which it is a parish.
The link with Malta has never been broken. The church is still where the Sienese section of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta meets. In 1980 it hosted the Grand Master Fra' Angelo de Mojana di Cologna, because of the title of "Sovrana" given to the Contrada dell'Istrice, in whose territory it stands.
The most curious sign is the Templar crosses carved in the stone of the side. Behind, next to the apse, stands the bell gable, typical of Templar commanderies.
The gabled facade, in stone and Romanesque style (12th or 13th century), has a 14th-century Gothic portal. The crowning with small arches was redone in an arbitrary way in the early 20th century. On the right is a brick chapel of 1523-1526, an ex-voto for the plague.
The interior is simple and austere: a single nave, with high, narrow windows, a raised presbytery, an apse and a timber-truss roof. The present look is owed to the restorations of 1957.
Among the works are a 14th-century Gothic niche for keeping the sacred vessels during Mass and fragments of monochrome frescoes by Cristoforo di Bindoccio and Meo di Pero, from the late 14th century, which come from a room of the old hospice.
In the right-hand chapel is a Madonna and Child by Bartolomeo Neroni, known as Il Riccio, from the 16th century, and a Madonna with Saints John the Baptist and Peter by Diego Pesco, from 1760.
The church is documented from 998 and belonged to the Knights Templar from at least the 12th century: a document of 1148 says so. They kept a hospice for pilgrims here, "la Magione", which gave the church its name.
In 1312 the Templars were suppressed and the church passed to the Knights Hospitaller, the future Knights of Malta, and later to the diocese, of which it is a parish.
The link with Malta has never been broken. The church is still where the Sienese section of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta meets. In 1980 it hosted the Grand Master Fra' Angelo de Mojana di Cologna, because of the title of "Sovrana" given to the Contrada dell'Istrice, in whose territory it stands.