Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta
Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta historical timeline
Last updated on October 14, 2026- 949 — a plebe ecclesiae Sancti Johanni is recorded, though it is not certain it stood where the church stands now: a 13th-century toponym, Pieve Vecchia, points to a site outside the walls near the springs of Pietratonda.
- — Pope Victor II raises the pieve of San Giovanni at San Gimignano to the title of Propositura. The church may have been erected in this year, though only the 1148 consecration is certain.
- — on 1 December the Conti Cadolingi, who had taken the pieve's territory in the middle of the century, return half of it to the bishop of Volterra, to whose diocese the church belonged.
- — on 11 September the chapter of canons is recorded for the first time, when houses in the castle of La Pietra are donated to the church.
- — on 21 November the rebuilt church, now moved inside the town, is consecrated and dedicated to San Geminiano in the presence of Pope Eugene III and fourteen prelates. A plaque in the facade still records it.
- 1171 and 1179 — two papal bulls, dated 29 December 1171 and 23 April 1179, recognise the communal autonomy San Gimignano had won from its old lord, the bishop of Volterra.
- — on 29 January Pope Lucius III confirms the proposto's privilege of holding a feudal territory inside the pieve's district, which turned the head of this church into a temporal lord.
- 1192–1231 — the long tenure of the proposto Lamberto, active between 13 August 1192 and 21 March 1231, during which the church becomes powerful enough to shape the politics of the Val d'Elsa.
- — on 15 May the act of submission of the castle of Montignoso is signed ante plebem, in front of the church: by this period it is the centre of the town's civil as well as religious life, with a cattle market held under the bell tower on Saturdays.
- — the church is restructured.
- — enlargement begins to a design by Giuliano da Maiano, who lengthens the crossing and presbytery and builds the chapels of the Concezione and of Santa Fina.
- December 1932 — Pope Pius XI raises the church to the dignity of minor basilica.
- the Second World War — the church and its frescoes suffer considerable damage, repaired by repeated campaigns of restoration.
Verified against Wikipedia, October 2026.