The monumental architectural complex of Monte Senario belongs to the Order of the Servants of Mary, and is located on the top of the mountain of the same name at around 800 m. above sea level. In 1233 seven Florentine nobles retreated to this place to live a hermit life, taking the name of Servi di Maria. For some years they lived in meditation in small cells dug into the rock, until, in 1241, having received the ruins of the castle as a gift from the bishop, they built the first convent.
Convent of Montesenario Thus was born the Order of the Servants of Mary, which since then had its headquarters in the Sanctuary of Monte Senario and from here spread throughout the world. The architectural structure of the primitive nucleus was modified several times, in particular in 1400, and since then other profound modifications and expansions followed which led to the current architectural complex. It is made up of several buildings: the Church of S. Maria, recently restored to its eighteenth-century splendor, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, a notable work by G. Battista Foggini, the Chapel of the Seven Saints, which houses the remains of the Seven Founding Fathers, the Choir , with eighteenth-century carved walnut stalls; the convent, with the fifteenth-century cloister and the Medici cistern dominated by a large panoramic terrace. The numerous works of art date back mainly to the seventeenth century, such as the large fresco of The Last Supper by Matteo Rosselli in the refectory and the polychrome stucco Crucifix by Ferdinando Tacca, above the main altar. The main buildings are flanked by the caves and cells once inhabited by the Servants of Mary and the ice house, a nineteenth-century building of singular architecture, considered the largest of its kind in Italy.
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