Monte Amiata Cross, Iron cross monument at Monte Amiata summit, Italy

The Monte Amiata Cross is a wrought iron cross on the summit of Monte Amiata, in the municipality of Abbadia San Salvatore. It stands 22 metres tall on a square base measuring 8 by 8 metres per side, and was made in the Belle Époque style by Luciano Zalaffi's Sienese workshops using four tonnes of iron.

The cross was built after Pope Leo XIII suggested erecting twenty monuments on Italian peaks for the Holy Year of 1900; Amiata was the ninth. The Tuscan episcopate entrusted the work to Bishop Bellucci of Chiusi and Pienza, and the Sienese workshops of Luciano Zalaffi made it in wrought iron between 1900 and 1910. German troops toppled it on 17 June 1944; it was rebuilt in three months and inaugurated in 1946, when Pius XII switched on its lights by radio impulse.

The cross draws both hikers and pilgrims who stop at its base to take in the surrounding hills of Tuscany. The wrought iron decorative details in the Belle Époque style make it an example of religious art that anyone can appreciate without prior knowledge.

The cross can be reached on foot from Abbadia San Salvatore via several trails and acts as a natural landmark at the top of the mountain. Good walking shoes are advised, as the path can be rocky and the summit is often windy.

The heavy iron parts were carried to the summit by mule in the early 1900s, as no road reached the top at that time. This detail gives a sense of just how much effort went into placing the structure where it now stands.