San Pietro alla Magione, Romanesque church in Siena, Italy.
San Pietro alla Magione is a stone Romanesque church on Via Camollia, entered by a stairway and a 14th-century Gothic portal set in a 12th- or 13th-century gable facade. Beside the apse stands a bell gable of the kind used by Templar houses, and Templar crosses are carved on the flank. The single aisle, raised presbytery and trussed roof date to the 1957 restoration.
The church first appears in records during 998 when Counts Bernardo and Gualfredo Ranieri donated property to establish it. By the 12th century, it had become a Knights Templar hospice, and in the early 1500s a chapel was added to mark the end of plague.
The name "Magione" comes from the hospice the Knights Templar kept here for pilgrims from the 12th century. The church is still the meeting and ceremony seat of the Sienese section of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and in 1980 Grand Master Fra' Angelo de Mojana di Cologna attended the ceremony granting the title "Sovrana" to the Contrada dell'Istrice, on whose land the church stands.
The building stands on Via Camollia 162 near the Camollia Gate on Siena's northern edge. Its location makes it easy to visit while exploring the surrounding neighborhood.
On the exterior wall, several Templar crosses are carved into the stonework, and beside the apse stands a bell gable of the kind typical of Templar houses. The monochrome fresco fragments by Cristoforo di Bindoccio and Meo di Pero came from a room of the hospice.
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