History

La Pieve Marsina is located in one of the most ancient hill of the Chianti, in the Argenina Locality. Repetti, a famous historical-geographical dictionary of Tuscany writes about our place: ARGENA, ARGENNINA E ARGENO. It is the name of the hill that are like a border between the Chianti and the Berardenga district, between the Florentine, the Sienese and the Aretino areas. It was a seigniory of the noble family of Firidolfi da Ricasoli, which donated from the XII century some of the farmstead in the Argennina hill to their Badia a Coltibuono. They owned the properties till their suppression (1809).” The dates on the first constructions as they look like today are quite vague. Repetti reports this geographic location in the civil and political history of the Middle Age, as the Argennina o Argena hill was designated as a natural border in 1204 from the Florentine and Sienese institutions. The oldest written records known about this place was made in the 998, when the Marquis of Tuscany G. Conte Ugo allocated a farmhouse in Argennina in Chianti to the Badia di Poggiomarturi (Poggibonsi). In the highest point of the hill rises the beautiful Church of San Pietro in Vinculis, suffragan of the parish Church of San Marcellino since the XIII century, but already existing in the XII century as evidenced by a document dated April 1164 in which the “presb. Raineri rector S.Petri de Argenino” was mentioned. It is rectangular shaped and has a gable roof, irregular masonry walls made of bricks and stones and a bell gable. In the maps of the Guelfa league (1580-95) it is part of the People of “S. Piero a Largenina” and it has a similar shape, except for the 3 small windows on the north side wall. The interior has a beams and rafters roof tiles made of chestnut wood. The presbytery, divided from the nave by a stair, has a round arch and barrel vault. At the end of the church there is an altar with aedicule and oil painting representing S. Pietro in Vinculis (cm. 130×130 ca., completely repainted).