Buti | Church of Santa Maria della Neve

The Church of Santa Maria della Neve is a small jewel on the slopes of Monte Pisano, just outside the town of Buti.

It is located along the course of the Rio Magno where the old mill road once stood. In 1273 there was a women’s monastery that followed the rule of St Augustine, later transferred to Pisa and then abandoned in the mid 14th century.

The wooden statue of the Madonna del Monte, venerated by the inhabitants and now in the Pieve di San Giovanni Battista, was placed in the church. The church was originally called Santa Maria in Valle Verde, then Santa Maria ad Nives and finally the Church of the Ascension. According to tradition, it was built by the sect of the ‘Free Masons’, forerunners of the Freemasons, as confirmed by the square and compasses carved on the lintel.

The interior, with a single nave and a presbytery separated by three arches, preserves 18th-century frescoes attributed to Pietro Giarrè (an artist who worked at the Certosa di Calci and the Villa Medicea di Buti).