The late baroque façade by Bernardo Fallani, crowned by terracotta statues, introduces the church’s Baroque interior where important Florentine paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries (the Alms of Saint Thomas of Villanova by Simone Pignoni, the Stigmata of Saint Francis by Orazio Fidani, Our Lady of the Assumption between Saints Anthony the Abbot and Veridiana by Jacopo da Empoli and Alessandro Gherardini, as well as the oval paintings depicting the Miracles of the Saint by Giovan Domenico Ferretti) accompany a cycle of frescoes in the aisles, on the central ceiling and in the choir dome that tell the story of the saint’s life, celebrating her cult. The free brush strokes and the luminous palette of Giovan Camillo Sagrestani and his workshop (Niccolò Lapi, Giuseppe Moriani, Ranieri Del Pace, Antonio Puglieschi) pay homage to the saint of snakes, recounting episodes from her earthly life (Departure for a Pilgrimage, Last Communion, Death, Exequies) or her miracles (Miracle of the Child who Fell from a Mare. Miracle of Water Transformed into Wine, of the Genoese Matron, of the Soldier). The apotheosis of the saint’s cult after her death is portrayed by Alessandro Gherardini on the central ceiling (Trinity and Saints) and by Matteo Bonechi in the apse dome (Glory of Saint Veridiana). The Museum is beyond the right aisle of the church, past the gate. The Castelfiorentino Museum was inaugurated only in 1999, although it should have been among the first of the vicarial museums because of the an-
cient history of its project and the exceptional quality and notoriety of its artistic patrimony. The idea of creating the Museum dates back to the beginning of the 1950’s and was very soon promoted by two very prominent and important people, Monsignor Giovanni Bianchi, the provost of Castelfiorentino, and Professor Ugo Procacci, at the time the Superintendent of Florence, great admirers of the local patrimony, who were followed, in time, by their successors, Cardinal Piovanelli, archbishop of Florence, Don Marco Viola and then by Superintendent Antonio Paolucci. In 1963, at the end of the famous exhibition Arte in Valdelsa, the milestone for the paintings and sculptures held jealously in the churches of this real “valley of treasures”, many works could no longer return to their original place on their altars of provenance and stayed in the Santa Verdiana rectory, which began to serve as a gathering point in the area. Since that time a new museum was developed in Castelfiorentino. Although at an embryonic stage, it followed the only other museum in existence in the Florentine Valdelsa, the Museum of the Collegiate Church of Sant’Andrea in Empoli, one of the oldest in Tuscany. The Santa Verdiana Museum shows a very close relationship exactly with this museum. In fact, if in Empoli the Museum lives in very close harmony with the Collegiate Church of Saint Andrew, largely housing works destined for the church’s altars and then discarded following the 18th century renovation by Fernando Ruggeri, the reenglish version
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