Collegiata di Sant'Andrea

The Collegiata of Sant'Andrea was born with the fortress of Montecarlo between 1334 and 1342 with the same name of the church of Vivinaia, destroyed with the ancient village by the Florentines. The Collegiata also took the font away from this church, but it remained under the authority of the Parish of San Pietro in Campo until 1408.

The planning of the Collegiata in its original architecture met the needs of Montecarlo, a fortified village that had been raised for purely military purposes. Therefore, the lower and original part of the façade was quite low.
Since the Collegiata was the tallest building in the village, an edict was issued and forbade any citizen to climb its roof, from where it would have been possible to spy the interior of the castle. For the same reasons, the church's bell tower had been carried out in such a way that its height did not exceed the roof. It was raised to its definitive height in 1903.
Not many elements of the original structure have remained. Yet, the crypt, that was the base of the Compagnia della Madonna del Soccorso's reunions in the past, has been preserved in good conditions. This confraternity had chosen it also as a burial place for its followers.
Actually, the crypt had been frescoed later, but its works were then taken away and put in the Museo Parrocchiale of Montecarlo. Beyond the tombs of the confraternity's members, two illustrious citizens of the town were buried in the crypt, too: they are Felice Seghieri, bishop of Sovana and Pitigliano who died prematurely in 1759, and Jacopo Bianchi, one of the financiers of the works inside the church.
In the centuries following the creation of the Collegiata, many enlargement, restoration and embellishment works have been carried out. The position of the new font, of the holy water basins, of the altar of the Conception (1597), of the frescoes (that have been taken away), of the crypt and of various other decoration works date to the XVI century.
Further embellishment works were carried out in the XVII century and some oil canvases were added in the sacristy Huge works started in the XVIII century, such as the restoration of the church supervised by the architect Giuseppe Vannetti and by the engineer Giuseppe Bernardi. The big fresco representing the Last Supper dates to the same period and it has also been taken away from the Collegiata. It is a very unusual and peculiar work, because it is an oil painting. The stuccos of the pilasters and the frescoes of the dome were carried out in the XIX century.