San Lorenzo Collegiate Church, church building in Montevarchi, Italy

San Lorenzo Collegiate Church is a collegiate church in Montevarchi with a slender bell tower topped by a statue of Saint Lawrence. Its interior features numerous Baroque elements and houses a museum displaying medieval and Renaissance artworks from the region.

The original church of San Lorenzo stood on the Poggio di Cennano, founded no earlier than the 12th century within the castle walls. In the 13th century, landslides pushed the settlement down to the Mercatale, and a 1275 agreement between the bishops of Fiesole and Arezzo points to a new church below the hill; a 1283 bas-relief of the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence survives from it. The building was long unfinished, and the Sacro Latte relic was kept at San Ludovico until that church was completed in 1360. The bell tower dates from 1440, its pyramidal spire from 1560.

The church displays religious artworks spanning multiple periods, including pieces by Andrea della Robbia and a stone portrait of Pope Leo X. Visitors can observe how the region's artistic evolution is documented through these sacred objects on view here.

The church stands on the east side of Piazza Varchi, Montevarchi's central square, so it is reached on foot from the surrounding streets. The bell tower, built in 1440, rises beside the facade and helps orient visitors arriving from the square.

The Sacro Latte relic reached Montevarchi between the late 13th and early 14th century and was first kept in San Ludovico, since San Lorenzo was not yet finished. The 1266 gift by Count Guido Guerra V rests on a 16th-century tradition with no documentary proof. The oldest work in the church is an anonymous 1283 bas-relief of the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence.