San Galgano: the sword in the stone that Tuscany never tells you about

There are places that stay hushed, a step away from the well-worn routes yet overlooked by most travellers. The Abbey of San Galgano, in the countryside of Chiusdino in the province of Siena, is one of them. While tour buses unload crowds just a few dozen kilometres away, here you often walk in silence, between stone walls and a sky that pours in where the roof once stood.

The abbey is a Cistercian church in the Gothic style: construction began around 1218 and continued for decades. In the high Middle Ages it became one of the most powerful Cistercian foundations in Tuscany, then came decline, famine, plague and finally abandonment. Today the skeleton remains: roofless naves, pointed arches, grass growing where the monks once prayed. It is not a mournful ruin, but a space that lets in the light and the wind.

Climbing the hill alongside it you reach the Hermitage, or Rotonda, of Montesiepi, a circular chapel consecrated in 1185. Here, kept beneath a glass case, is a sword driven into the rock. Legend links it to the knight Galgano Guidotti, who after his conversion is said to have thrust the cross-shaped blade into the stone. Scientific tests carried out in 2001, with the contribution of the University of Pavia, dated the sword to the 12th century, giving the object a tangible fascination beyond the myth.

It is worth stepping into the side chapel for the traces of 14th-century frescoes attributed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti, dedicated to the story of Galgano. It is a detail that many, drawn only by the sword, miss entirely.

Visiting San Galgano is a gentle way to travel: choosing the shoulder seasons, arriving early or in the late afternoon, respecting the silence of the place and taking away only photographs. A small, human-scale alternative to Tuscany's more crowded destinations.

Getting there

The Abbey of San Galgano lies in the municipality of Chiusdino, some twenty kilometres south of Siena. The most practical way to reach it is by car: from Siena you follow the road towards Chiusdino, taking the SP73 bis provincial road and then the SP441, where a large free car park sits beside the abbey. Public transport is inconvenient; the reference town for train and services is Siena, with airports at Florence and Pisa.