The Convent of San Bernardino
The church of San Bernardino is an important Catholic place of worship in Sinalunga, in the province of Siena, within the territory of the diocese of Montepulciano-Chiusi-Pienza; the church, with the adjoining convent of the Order of Friars Minor, is located just outside the town, on Poggio Baldino. In 1449, a church dedicated to Maria Annunziata was built in Poggio Baldino at the behest of the Sienese jurist Mariano Sozzini, with an adjoining convent, where the Blessed Pietro Fratangioli from Trequanda lived around 1460: it was he who donated the icon of the Madonna del Rifugio, image attributed to Sano di Pietro, for which a chapel annexed to the complex was built in 1532 by the Orlandini family. The church, later dedicated to San Bernardino of Siena, was radically restored in Baroque style in the 18th century, with the creation of the rich decorative apparatus in stucco; new restorations were carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the renovation in neo-Renaissance style of the Orlandini chapel and the construction of a new bell tower.
The exterior of the church is characterized by the stone façade, preceded by a portico with three round arches (with a further two blind arches on each side) resting on brick pillars with an octagonal plan, with Ionic capitals in sandstone. In the upper part of the façade there is a splayed oculus with a polychrome stained glass window depicting the saint who is the dedicatee of the church.
The interior of the church, in Baroque style, has a single nave with five bays, of which the first and third are covered with a cross vault, the second and fourth with a barrel vault with lunettes and the fifth with a ribbed vault. There are three side chapels, each with a polychrome wooden statue above the altar depicting the dedicatee: the first on the right is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and is the only one with a rectangular plan; in correspondence with the second span, there are two semicircular chapels, dedicated respectively to San Francesco d'Assisi (on the right) and to the Madonna (on the left); in each of the side walls of the two intermediate bays there is a confessional. The fifth bay corresponds to the presbytery, raised by a few steps, which houses the high altar in polychrome marble, surmounted by a wooden Crucifix; in the rear apse, with a rectangular plan, is the choir in carved wood.
On the choir loft near the back wall of the apse, above the wooden choir, is the pipe organ, built in 1927 by the Aletti brothers.
Opposite the chapel of the Sacred Heart, an arch opens up on the left wall of the first bay of the nave which provides access to the chapel of the Madonna del Rifugio, rebuilt in Renaissance style between 1854 and 1858; the room, with an octagonal plan, has, close to the back wall, the marble altar which houses the venerated icon, attributed to Sano di Pietro. Within two niches, facing each other, there are as many 19th-century side altars, dedicated to San Bernardino of Siena (on the left) and to St. Anthony of Padua (on the right). The room is vaulted with an octagonal dome without lantern. Important works of art are kept in the chapel, hanging on the side walls: the Annunciation of Benvenire by Giovanni (1470), the Baptism of Christ by Guiduccio Cozzarelli (about 1483), the Coronation of the Virgin with Child between Saints Simon and Taddeo by the same artist (1486) and the Blessing Christ by Sano di Pietro.
The exterior of the church is characterized by the stone façade, preceded by a portico with three round arches (with a further two blind arches on each side) resting on brick pillars with an octagonal plan, with Ionic capitals in sandstone. In the upper part of the façade there is a splayed oculus with a polychrome stained glass window depicting the saint who is the dedicatee of the church.
The interior of the church, in Baroque style, has a single nave with five bays, of which the first and third are covered with a cross vault, the second and fourth with a barrel vault with lunettes and the fifth with a ribbed vault. There are three side chapels, each with a polychrome wooden statue above the altar depicting the dedicatee: the first on the right is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and is the only one with a rectangular plan; in correspondence with the second span, there are two semicircular chapels, dedicated respectively to San Francesco d'Assisi (on the right) and to the Madonna (on the left); in each of the side walls of the two intermediate bays there is a confessional. The fifth bay corresponds to the presbytery, raised by a few steps, which houses the high altar in polychrome marble, surmounted by a wooden Crucifix; in the rear apse, with a rectangular plan, is the choir in carved wood.
On the choir loft near the back wall of the apse, above the wooden choir, is the pipe organ, built in 1927 by the Aletti brothers.
Opposite the chapel of the Sacred Heart, an arch opens up on the left wall of the first bay of the nave which provides access to the chapel of the Madonna del Rifugio, rebuilt in Renaissance style between 1854 and 1858; the room, with an octagonal plan, has, close to the back wall, the marble altar which houses the venerated icon, attributed to Sano di Pietro. Within two niches, facing each other, there are as many 19th-century side altars, dedicated to San Bernardino of Siena (on the left) and to St. Anthony of Padua (on the right). The room is vaulted with an octagonal dome without lantern. Important works of art are kept in the chapel, hanging on the side walls: the Annunciation of Benvenire by Giovanni (1470), the Baptism of Christ by Guiduccio Cozzarelli (about 1483), the Coronation of the Virgin with Child between Saints Simon and Taddeo by the same artist (1486) and the Blessing Christ by Sano di Pietro.
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