Santa Maria Assunta a Monte Oliveto Minore

Santa Maria Assunta a Monte Oliveto Minore is a Benedictine monastery with a stone facade featuring a columned portico and a single-nave church with side chapels. The complex also includes a fifteenth-century cloister with three-sided arcades surrounding a central lawn area.

The monastery was founded in 1340 and underwent major reconstruction in the mid-1400s that shaped its current appearance. This building campaign transformed the site into the form visitors encounter today.

The church interior displays a Renaissance fresco of the Crucifixion and baroque decorations created by artisans, showing how artists of that period adorned religious spaces. These works reflect the artistic values and technical skills valued by the Benedictine community who lived here.

The monastery sits about one kilometer from San Gimignano on the Via Francigena, an old pilgrimage route running through the Tuscan countryside. A visit works well as a countryside walk outside the town walls.

The cloister contains the tomb of Master Antonio Salvi, a skilled craftsman from the local area. This burial reflects how valued such skilled artisans were within the monastery community.