San Lino, Volterra
# San Lino, Volterra

San Lino is a Renaissance-style, Roman Catholic church and former monastery in Volterra, region of Tuscany, Italy. It is located on Via San Lino in the historic center of the town.

## History

The adjacent former Franciscan order nunnery, now a hotel, was founded in 1480, supposedly on the home of the first-century saint and Pope Linus, who putatively followed Peter as the second pope and of whom little else can be documented. Legend holds that he was born in Volterra.

Raffaelo Maffei, a native citizen who had been theologian for both Popes Julius II and Sixtus IV, endowed construction of the church and enlargement of the adjacent monastery (1517) at a cost of 80,000 scudi. The plain facade and portal were completed by 1513. The presbytery of the church contains a memorial bust (1522) of Maffei by Silvio da Fiesole (Silvio Cosini) with flanking statues of the Archangel Raphael and Beato Gerardo on his tomb by Fra Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and Stagio Stagi. The interior ceiling is decorated with framed lunettes frescoed with images and scenes, including twelve Stories of the Life of Christ (circa 1618) by Cosimo Daddi. The church has a main altarpiece painted on wood with a Virgin and San Lino (1597) painted by Francesco Curradi, a Birth of Mary (17th century) by Cesare Dandini, and a Visitation also by Daddi.

## Sources

* Italian Wikipedia entry
* ↑ Guida di Volterra, by Benedetto Sborgi, Tipografia Sborgi (1903): page 85.
* ↑ Guida di Volterra, page 117.
