The Pieve di Sant’Agata is a place of worship located in Sant’Agata di Mugello, a hamlet in the municipality of Scarperia e San Piero, in the province of Florence.
Documented since 984, it may have been built over an earlier church, as indicated by the remains of a previous 4th-5th century building located beneath the current floor. The church was rebuilt in the 12th century, likely around the mid-century—as deduced from the date 1175 engraved on one of the panels of the ancient pulpit—and corresponds to the structure seen today. In 1542, it suffered the first major earthquake, which particularly affected the bell tower, followed by a second in 1611, both resulting in subsequent restorations and remodeling. Between 1608 and 1611, the parish priest Tolomeo Nozzolini sought to modernize the church according to the new criteria of the Counter-Reformation: both the interior and exterior were plastered; the raised presbytery was lowered, dismantling the ancient pulpit; and the wooden altars were replaced with stone ones to house new, modern paintings.
The Crucifix Chapel (Cappella del Crocefisso) was built in 1477 by the Florentine Cambi family. The chapel’s name derives from the Crucifix, which Nozzolini placed here as an altar ornament. The back wall, the subject of our project, was frescoed by the painter Luigi Ademollo (1764-1849) and depicts the Resurrection of Christ on the right and the Sleeping Soldiers on the left. The severe state of degradation makes it impossible to discern if the Pious Women and the Angel are also present, as they may be hidden by the thick carbonate patina covering almost the entire surface.
