Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinaio
Below Cortona's city walls, on a hillside thick with olive trees, stands a Renaissance church that began with a shoemaker's miracle. On Easter Sunday 1484, an image of the Madonna and Child painted on the wall of a tanning basin — a calcinaio — was said to start performing miracles. The Shoemaker's Guild, who owned the tannery, took that seriously enough to commission an architect.
What they built is one of the more quietly authoritative churches in Tuscany. The façade of rough squared stone rises with a restrained confidence, and inside, the proportions — a nave 46 metres long, an octagonal dome climbing 53 metres — do the work that ornament might do elsewhere.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to arrive on a weekday morning, before ten, when the light through Guillaume de Marcillat's 1516 oculus window falls cleanly across the nave. They also mention standing at the high altar and realising the original miraculous image — the painted wall fragment that started everything in 1484 — is still there, still in place.
The story behind Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinaio
The story starts in 1484, when a painted Madonna on the wall of a tanning vat outside Cortona's walls was credited with miracles. The Shoemaker's Guild commissioned Francesco di Giorgio Martini — architect, engineer, theorist — to design a church around it that same year. Work began in 1485, and by 1525 the exterior had taken its current form.
The octagonal dome, designed by Pietro di Domenico di Norbo, went up between 1509 and 1514. Guillaume de Marcillat, a French-born stained-glass master working in Tuscany, added the counter-façade oculus window in 1516. Bernardino Covatti completed the main portal in 1543 and had earlier carved the pietra serena shrine in 1519. The church was finally consecrated in October 1604 by Bishop Filippo Bardi, dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin — more than a century after that Easter Sunday at the tannery.
Good to know
The church is free to enter and reachable by car, with ample parking nearby. Access is by request outside of mass times, so check hours locally before visiting. Weekday mornings are quietest; Sunday masses draw a local congregation but limit photography. The nearest train station is Camucia-Cortona, about 3 km away.
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What travellers say about Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinaio
This church has the best view of 360 degree surroundings. It has been renovated recently and read somewhere it has the best renaissance architectural space well worth to look into.
Best place. Beautiful
Beautiful old church. Very nice people. Attended Mass
Huge and beautiful church, definitely worth the hike here.
Beautiful church and art
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