Corazzano

The small village of Corazzano is located in the plains of the Egola river valley, about 10km from San Miniato. The village was called Quaratiana during medieval times. It was the home of the Della Gherardesca counts. In medieval times it was of great importance due to the nearby Romanesque church San Giovanni (St John).

San Giovanni
This church is the most significant sight in the area around Corazzano. Its existence has been mentioned as early as 783, it was part of the diocese of Lucca for a long time and in 983 it had 20 villages and a dozen of smaller churches under its jurisdiction. The actual structure is from the XII century, it is totally made of bricks, with a beautiful crenellated bell tower on one side and the much later parsonage on the other; it has a saddle roof with a very suggestive apse. Inside it has been completely stripped and there is only the holy-water font remaining, this was once the baptismal font of the old parish church of Barbinaia, and a fresco "Virgin Mary with the Infant Christ" of the XV century by Cenni di F. di Ser Cenni. While a painting by a follower of Andrea de Castegno was brought into the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art in San Miniato for safekeeping. Unfortunately other paintings and objects have mostly been stolen.

Near Corazzano there are several important tobacco-factories and beautiful typical Tuscan farm-houses and old homesteads. Between the village and Casatrada there is also the hamlet, Agnoloni, with its country house and little church. At Portici House, near the main road, important archaeological findings have been made, of a destroyed tomb dating from between the III and the first decades of the II century B.C.
For more information about the village's history visit www.sanminiatopromozione.it/en/corazzano#sthash.s00uPQlt.dpuf