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Oratorio di Sant'Eufrosino, Panzano in Chianti

Scopri Oratorio di Sant'Eufrosino, Panzano in Chianti

Ultimo aggiornamento il 3 novembre 2026

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Valuta

Introduzione

L'oratorio di Sant'Eufròsino si trova a Panzano in Chianti, frazione di Greve in Chianti, in provincia di Firenze, diocesi di Fiesole.

Il suo santo è cappadoce e il Chianti ha solo due sue chiese. Sant'Eufrosino, originario della Cappadocia, fu uno degli evangelizzatori del Chianti, tanto che nel territorio chiantigiano vennero edificati due luoghi di culto a lui intitolati: questo e la Commenda di Sant'Eufrosino a Volpaia, nel comune di Radda in Chianti.

La tradizione gli mette sotto la tomba. Si vuole che abbia trovato la morte nei pressi di Panzano e che nel luogo della sua sepoltura fosse costruito un oratorio, meta di pellegrinaggi legati al culto di una sorgente dotata di poteri taumaturgici, il Fontino di Sant'Eufrosino.

Le prime notizie sono una bolla dell'11 marzo 1102, di Pasquale II a Giovanni, vescovo di Fiesole. L'edificio attuale risale a non prima del 1441.

E una scrittrice lo ha messo in pagina. L'oratorio è stato descritto dalla giornalista e scrittrice fiorentina Oriana Fallaci nel romanzo postumo Un cappello pieno di ciliege.

Architettura

La tipologia è l'oratorio a navata unica con presbiterio quadrato. Una struttura quattrocentesca: tetto a capanna voltato a crociera, una navata, e una scarsella a chiuderla.

Un arco organizza l'interno. Un grande arco trasversale con capitelli in pietra serena scolpita a fogliami divide navata e presbiterio: l'unico elemento di articolazione architettonica della sala.

Il portico è un'aggiunta del Seicento, costruito in facciata e lungo il fianco destro, ed è ciò che fa sembrare l'edificio, da fuori, più grande di quanto sia.

L'edificio precedente sopravvive come una toppa di muro. Sotto quel portico, all'inizio della parete destra, restano filaretti di una struttura più piccola, forse quella del XII secolo.

L'edicola è l'unica cosa gotica qui, e può essere importata. Due pilastrini, un arco trilobato dentro una cuspide a foglie rampanti, formelle traforate a quadrilobi in basso, stemma dei Peruzzi sulle mensole. La documentazione suppone sia stata recuperata da una chiesa fiorentina e donata dai Peruzzi all'epoca dell'ampliamento: il che spiegherebbe un pezzo di gotico cittadino in un oratorio di campagna.

La cappella dietro è più antica dell'oratorio sotto un aspetto. Custodisce un altare in pietra serena del XII secolo, l'elemento datato più antico del sito, insieme a tracce di affreschi quattrocenteschi.

La storia in breve

Una bolla dell'11 marzo 1102, una ricostruzione sull'indulgenza di Eugenio IV del 1441, la mappa di un ospedale fiorentino del 1565 e una società di culto nel 1852.

Leggi la guida completa su cronologia storica →

Come è stato costruito e si è trasformato nel tempo

La chiesa quattrocentesca fu finanziata, non dotata. Un'indulgenza di Eugenio IV nel 1441 a chi donasse per la costruzione è uno strumento di raccolta fondi: l'edificio è salito su piccole offerte, il che è coerente con le sue dimensioni.

Volte a crociera sotto un tetto a capanna. Soluzione strutturale leggera per una navata unica: le volte reggono il soffitto, la capanna scarica la pioggia, e non serve alcuna navata laterale.

Pietra serena per tutto ciò che è scolpito. I capitelli dell'arco trasversale ne sono tagliati e lavorati a fogliami, come l'altare duecentesco della cappella dietro. I muri strutturali no.

Il filaretto è la sopravvivenza diagnostica. Paramento regolare a corsi di piccoli blocchi squadrati, superstite nel primo tratto della parete destra sotto il portico e appartenente a un edificio precedente più modesto. È così che la documentazione sa che il 1441 fu una ricostruzione.

Sulla sorgente si è costruito due volte. Una descrizione dà il Fontino come due colonne in muratura che sostengono un architrave in arenaria, con la sorgente dentro, il busto del santo sopra e una cuspide a pinnacolo a coprire il tutto; un'altra dà un piccolo sacello su quattro colonne. In ogni caso il problema costruttivo era lo stesso: coprire l'acqua e dare agli ex voto dove stare.

Domande frequenti

Chi era Sant'Eufrosino?

Un cappadoce, uno degli evangelizzatori del Chianti. La tradizione vuole che sia morto presso Panzano e sepolto dove sorge questo oratorio. Solo due luoghi di culto del Chianti gli sono intitolati: questo e la Commenda di Sant'Eufrosino a Volpaia, a Radda.

Quanto è antico l'oratorio?

Le prime notizie sono una bolla dell'11 marzo 1102. L'edificio attuale è di non prima del 1441, quando un'indulgenza di Eugenio IV ne finanziò la costruzione — ma fu una ricostruzione: sotto il portico sopravvive filaretto di una struttura precedente più piccola.

Che cos'è il Fontino?

La sorgente di cui Sant'Eufrosino si sarebbe servito, e per cui venivano i pellegrini. È coperta da un piccolo sacello su quattro colonne, e all'interno sono conservati gli ex voto.

Si può entrare?

Nessuno pubblica orari, messe o ingressi. La cappella dietro e il Fontino sono all'aperto; l'oratorio in sé può essere chiuso.

Che cos'è l'edicola gotica?

Una piccola edicola nel presbiterio che in origine ospitava le reliquie del santo: due pilastrini, un arco trilobato in una cuspide fogliata, formelle a quadrilobi sotto, e sulle mensole lo stemma dei Peruzzi. Potrebbe essere stata portata da una chiesa fiorentina e donata da quella famiglia.

Dov'è la statua del santo?

Una statua in gesso policromo sta nella grande nicchia costruita durante i restauri seicenteschi. Il busto reliquiario in gesso settecentesco che apparteneva a questo oratorio è oggi nella pieve di San Leolino.

Compare in un libro?

Sì. Oriana Fallaci ha descritto l'oratorio nel romanzo postumo Un cappello pieno di ciliege.

Guarda Oratorio di Sant'Eufrosino, Panzano in Chianti attraverso le foto dei viaggiatori →

Fonti e verifica Riguarda le affermazioni documentate di questa pagina.

Verificato su Wikipedia — The present oratory of Sant'Eufrosino goes back to no earlier than 1441, when, pope Eugene IV finding himself in Florence, a special indulgence was issued to whoever made a donation for the construction of the oratory; it must have been a reconstruction, since remains of filaretto are conserved under the portico in the initial part of the right wall, belonging to a building of more modest dimensions and perhaps to the very building recalled in the twelfth-century document. The structure is fifteenth-century, with a gabled roof cross-vaulted and a single nave closed by a scarsella; the portico on the facade and the right side was added in the seventeenth century, while inside, restorations of that period changed the face of the church, rebuilding the altars and constructing a great niche to house the polychrome plaster statue of Sant'Eufrosino and a small reliquary. A great transverse arch with capitals in pietra serena carved with foliage divides the nave from the presbytery. In the end wall of the presbytery, at the left angle, is the piece of greatest artistic prestige: a Gothic ambo in the form of an edicola which originally must have housed the relics of the saint, formed of two small pilasters carrying a trilobed arch within a cusp decorated with rampant leaves, with two pierced panels of quatrefoils below and, on the corbels, the arms of the Peruzzi, perhaps the commissioners of the work -- the ambo having probably been recovered from a Florentine church and given by the Peruzzi at the time the structure was enlarged., In the yard behind the oratory of Sant'Eufrosino is a small chapel which tradition says was erected in memory of a miracle of the saint, who at that point made a spring of water gush out; inside it keeps an altar in pietra serena of the twelfth century as well as traces of fifteenth-century frescoes, and there is also the opening of a well whose waters were said to have therapeutic qualities. Near the oratory is the so-called Fontino di Sant'Eufrosino, a spring the saint is said to have used during his life, over which a small sacello carried on four columns has been built and inside which ex-votos are conserved., Sant'Eufrosino, originally from Cappadocia, was one of the evangelisers of the Chianti, so much so that two places of worship dedicated to him were built in the Chianti territory: the oratory at Panzano and the Commenda di Sant'Eufrosino at Volpaia in the comune of Radda in Chianti. Tradition holds that he met his death near Panzano and that an oratory was built on the place of his burial, a goal of pilgrimages tied to the cult of a spring endowed with thaumaturgic powers, the Fontino di Sant'Eufrosino, consisting of two masonry columns supporting a sandstone architrave, inside which was the spring with the bust of the saint above it, the whole covered by a cusp with a pinnacle. The first notice of the oratory comes in a bull of 11 March 1102 from Paschal II to Giovanni, bishop of Fiesole. In 1852 an association was born whose purpose was the diffusion of the cult of Sant'Eufrosino with printed images of the saint accompanied by prayers of intercession., The present oratory of Sant'Eufrosino goes back to no earlier than 1441, when, pope Eugene IV finding himself in Florence, a special indulgence was issued to whoever made a donation for the construction of the oratory; it must have been a reconstruction, since remains of filaretto are conserved under the portico in the initial part of the right wall, belonging to a building of more modest dimensions and perhaps to the very building recalled in the twelfth-century document. The structure is fifteenth-century, with a gabled roof cross-vaulted and a single nave closed by a scarsella; the portico on the facade and the right side was added in the seventeenth century, while inside, restorations of that period changed the face of the church, rebuilding the altars and constructing a great niche to house the polychrome plaster statue of Sant'Eufrosino and a small reliquary. A great transverse arch with capitals in pietra serena carved with foliage divides the nave from the presbytery. In the end wall of the presbytery, at the left angle, is the piece of greatest artistic prestige: a Gothic ambo in the form of an edicola which originally must have housed the relics of the saint, formed of two small pilasters carrying a trilobed arch within a cusp decorated with rampant leaves, with two pierced panels of quatrefoils below and, on the corbels, the arms of the Peruzzi, perhaps the commissioners of the work -- the ambo having probably been recovered from a Florentine church and given by the Peruzzi at the time the structure was enlarged., Around 1514 the oratory of Sant'Eufrosino and the pieve di San Leolino increased the patrimony of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova of Florence, and in 1565 a cabreo was made, an inventory of the hospital's properties titled Campione delle Piante delle possessioni dello Spedale di S. Maria Nuova; in one of its maps is represented the Podere di Sant'Eufrosino di sopra, with its boundaries, its annotations and three buildings: the Cappella, the Casa del lavoratore and the Oratorio di San Frosino., The present oratory of Sant'Eufrosino goes back to no earlier than 1441, when, pope Eugene IV finding himself in Florence, a special indulgence was issued to whoever made a donation for the construction of the oratory; it must have been a reconstruction, since remains of filaretto are conserved under the portico in the initial part of the right wall, belonging to a building of more modest dimensions and perhaps to the very building recalled in the twelfth-century document. The structure is fifteenth-century, with a gabled roof cross-vaulted and a single nave closed by a scarsella; the portico on the facade and the right side was added in the seventeenth century, while inside, restorations of that period changed the face of the church, rebuilding the altars and constructing a great niche to house the polychrome plaster statue of Sant'Eufrosino and a small reliquary. A great transverse arch with capitals in pietra serena carved with foliage divides the nave from the presbytery. In the end wall of the presbytery, at the left angle, is the piece of greatest artistic prestige: a Gothic ambo in the form of an edicola which originally must have housed the relics of the saint, formed of two small pilasters carrying a trilobed arch within a cusp decorated with rampant leaves, with two pierced panels of quatrefoils below and, on the corbels, the arms of the Peruzzi, perhaps the commissioners of the work -- the ambo having probably been recovered from a Florentine church and given by the Peruzzi at the time the structure was enlarged., In the yard behind the oratory of Sant'Eufrosino is a small chapel which tradition says was erected in memory of a miracle of the saint, who at that point made a spring of water gush out; inside it keeps an altar in pietra serena of the twelfth century as well as traces of fifteenth-century frescoes, and there is also the opening of a well whose waters were said to have therapeutic qualities. Near the oratory is the so-called Fontino di Sant'Eufrosino, a spring the saint is said to have used during his life, over which a small sacello carried on four columns has been built and inside which ex-votos are conserved., Sant'Eufrosino, originally from Cappadocia, was one of the evangelisers of the Chianti, so much so that two places of worship dedicated to him were built in the Chianti territory: the oratory at Panzano and the Commenda di Sant'Eufrosino at Volpaia in the comune of Radda in Chianti. Tradition holds that he met his death near Panzano and that an oratory was built on the place of his burial, a goal of pilgrimages tied to the cult of a spring endowed with thaumaturgic powers, the Fontino di Sant'Eufrosino, consisting of two masonry columns supporting a sandstone architrave, inside which was the spring with the bust of the saint above it, the whole covered by a cusp with a pinnacle. The first notice of the oratory comes in a bull of 11 March 1102 from Paschal II to Giovanni, bishop of Fiesole. In 1852 an association was born whose purpose was the diffusion of the cult of Sant'Eufrosino with printed images of the saint accompanied by prayers of intercession., Sant'Eufrosino, originally from Cappadocia, was one of the evangelisers of the Chianti, so much so that two places of worship dedicated to him were built in the Chianti territory: the oratory at Panzano and the Commenda di Sant'Eufrosino at Volpaia in the comune of Radda in Chianti. Tradition holds that he met his death near Panzano and that an oratory was built on the place of his burial, a goal of pilgrimages tied to the cult of a spring endowed with thaumaturgic powers, the Fontino di Sant'Eufrosino, consisting of two masonry columns supporting a sandstone architrave, inside which was the spring with the bust of the saint above it, the whole covered by a cusp with a pinnacle. The first notice of the oratory comes in a bull of 11 March 1102 from Paschal II to Giovanni, bishop of Fiesole. In 1852 an association was born whose purpose was the diffusion of the cult of Sant'Eufrosino with printed images of the saint accompanied by prayers of intercession., The present oratory of Sant'Eufrosino goes back to no earlier than 1441, when, pope Eugene IV finding himself in Florence, a special indulgence was issued to whoever made a donation for the construction of the oratory; it must have been a reconstruction, since remains of filaretto are conserved under the portico in the initial part of the right wall, belonging to a building of more modest dimensions and perhaps to the very building recalled in the twelfth-century document. The structure is fifteenth-century, with a gabled roof cross-vaulted and a single nave closed by a scarsella; the portico on the facade and the right side was added in the seventeenth century, while inside, restorations of that period changed the face of the church, rebuilding the altars and constructing a great niche to house the polychrome plaster statue of Sant'Eufrosino and a small reliquary. A great transverse arch with capitals in pietra serena carved with foliage divides the nave from the presbytery. In the end wall of the presbytery, at the left angle, is the piece of greatest artistic prestige: a Gothic ambo in the form of an edicola which originally must have housed the relics of the saint, formed of two small pilasters carrying a trilobed arch within a cusp decorated with rampant leaves, with two pierced panels of quatrefoils below and, on the corbels, the arms of the Peruzzi, perhaps the commissioners of the work -- the ambo having probably been recovered from a Florentine church and given by the Peruzzi at the time the structure was enlarged., In the yard behind the oratory of Sant'Eufrosino is a small chapel which tradition says was erected in memory of a miracle of the saint, who at that point made a spring of water gush out; inside it keeps an altar in pietra serena of the twelfth century as well as traces of fifteenth-century frescoes, and there is also the opening of a well whose waters were said to have therapeutic qualities. Near the oratory is the so-called Fontino di Sant'Eufrosino, a spring the saint is said to have used during his life, over which a small sacello carried on four columns has been built and inside which ex-votos are conserved., The pieve di San Leolino conserves numerous works of art. The oldest is a slab of sandstone, perhaps a pluteo, used as the support of the altar table, decorated in depressed relief with a cross of grooved interlaced ribbons and whorls and datable between the eighth and the ninth century. Among the paintings are a Madonna enthroned between Saints Peter and Paul with stories of their lives, a thirteenth-century dossale attributed to Meliore di Jacopo; a Madonna enthroned with the Child and two angels, a triptych attributed to Mariotto di Nardo at the high altar and flanked by lateral compartments showing Saint Francis, Saint John the Baptist, Sant'Eufrosino and Saint Lawrence; a Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine, Peter and Paul, another triptych attributed by Bernard Berenson to the Maestro di Panzano, a painter close to Barna da Siena and Bartolo di Fredi and datable to the end of the fourteenth century; a Baptism of Christ, a fresco referred to Raffaellino del Garbo in the baptismal chapel, much repainted in the nineteenth century; and a small cusped fifteenth-century panel of the Madonna, the Child and two angels, of the Florentine school. Among the sculptural works are two glazed terracotta tabernacles ascribable to the workshop of Giovanni della Robbia and placed by the altar, commissioned by Leonardo Buonafede, and an eighteenth-century plaster reliquary bust of Sant'Eufròsino once belonging to the oratory of that saint., The oratory of Sant'Eufrosino was described by the Florentine journalist and writer Oriana Fallaci in her posthumous novel Un cappello pieno di ciliege. (ottobre 2026).
Verificato su Comune di Greve in Chianti — The Comune di Greve in Chianti publishes no opening hours and no admission price for any building at Panzano in Chianti, and no transport timetable serving it. (ottobre 2026).