Borgo San Lorenzo

Another important town in the Mugello area is Borgo San Lorenzo, thanks to its strategic position near the two roads that lead to Florence: the Faentina and the Bolognese. Borgo San Lorenzo has always been an important town for trade, but being in Mugello, a land of passage, it has witnessed very violent clashes for centuries; in fact the center of Borgo today is completely restored.

There are many sacred buildings to visit including the Pieve di San Lorenzo, where the only work by Giotto present in Mugello is preserved, the “Madonna with child”, the Oratory of the Madonna dei Tre Fiumi , the Parish Church of San Cresci.

The Palazzo Pretorio was built at the end of the 1300s, but rebuilt in 1935, after the 1919 earthquake that destroyed Mugello. The facade shows all the coats of arms of all the lords (Podestà) who led the town. Today it houses the municipal library. The Chini Manufacturing Museum is located inside Villa Pecori Giraldi, a stupendous building with its Art Nouveau interiors. The Chini family links its name to Italian liberty: Chini ceramics are increasingly valued on the art market.

A better place could not have been chosen to host the Chini collections: the villa is full of frescoes, fireplaces once made by the Chinis, and now the ceramics and iron and glass works of the Manufacture have arrived. For the patron saint (11 August), Borgo San Lorenzo organizes celebrations with festivals and events, but even in the absence of parties, Borgo is always an interesting town to visit.