Cascina | Marciana and Marcianella

The name Marciana derives from the Latin Marcius, 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 in a different position from the original. The one-room interior houses the image of the Madonna del Soccorso, celebrated every year on the second Sunday in October.

Nearby, 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,we find 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.