In San Godenzo on June 8, 1302 Dante was among those who signed the agreement between the noble families who were exiled from Florence and the Ubaldini.
This was done in the Abbazia di San Gaudenzio (San Godenzo Abbey), which was built in 1028 by Jacopo il Bavaro, bishop of Fiesole. Dedicated to Saint Gaudenzio, who in the late Middle Ages was a eremite on these mountains, it is one of the most important examples of Romanesque architecture in Tuscany: the façade is in stone, and the interior is vast and solemn with three naves and three apses. Among the works of art in the church, we find a Dantesque mosaic in the apse, a wooden statue of Saint Sebastian by Baccio da Montelupo, and a polyptych by Bernardo Daddi, Giotto’s pupil, dated 1333. Below the altar of the crypt we find the mummy of the Saint. Legend has it that at his death, the oxen who were pulling the cart with his remains stopped here. In the sacresty we find the “Campana di Dante”: this bell was inaugurated on occasion of the nine-hundredth anniversary of the Abbey.

Photo credits: Comune San Godenzo, Sara Fabbri