Vitaleta Chapel
The chapel of the Madonna di Vitaleta has the discreet charm of timeless beauty. It stands there on the sidelines, surmounted by some cypresses that stand guard over it, languid and attentive. Further on, a maritime pine makes the design perfect. All around are fields and hills that disappear as far as the eye can see. The building, probably of late Renaissance origin, once housed a Madonna attributed to Andrea della Robbia, a Florentine master sculptor who lived between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Madonna is preserved today inside the Church of San Francesco, commonly known as the Church of the Madonna, in the historic center of San Quirico d’Orcia.
This chapel, inserted in a UNESCO heritage landscape, has a single hall, its main façade covered in Rapolano stone in which a small rosone window of a beauty that smacks of infinity stands out and which opens above of the architraved portal. Here peace reigns; a mystical silence envelops the church: when it is filled with wind, the silence plays a melody of peace that fills the heart. Reaching this chapel on foot is the best thing to do.
Bagno Vignoni – Chapel of the Madonna di Vitaleta, 14 km