The name derives from the Latin Marcius (Roman centuriazione), while the first document attesting to the existence of the two villages dates back to 970: Marciana Maggiore and Marciana Minore (Marcianella).
Marciana is home to the church of San Michele, documented as early as 1277 and currently located in a different position from the original one. The one-room interior houses the venerated image of the Madonna del Soccorso, celebrated every year on the second Sunday in October. Nearby is the Villa Da Cascina, an 18th-century building in late Neoclassical Baroque style with an elegant inner courtyard. A tower owned by the ancestors of the Da Cascina family stood here in the Middle Ages and was used as a military tower when the family was exiled from the city.
In Marcianella, on the other hand, there is the beautiful small Church of San Miniato, in Pisan Romanesque style and with a single hall and verrucano limestone roof. Rectangular in shape with slit windows, it features a bell gable with bell on the façade. Inside, a characteristic holy water stack rests on a granite column. Although documented in 1011, it appears to be of even older origin as it was built by the monks of San Michele in Verruca. The interior features a barrel vault and an altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child by an artist of the Ghirlandaio school.