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We have no news concerning the events of a possible settlement,
which however appears as already equipped with a church in the first half of the
11 C. In the donation of August 10, 998 in favour of the Badia di Marturi three
trusts were registered in Cedda.
San Pietro A Cedda is a single nave church with a semicircular apse and bell
tower set to the right of the building.
The gabled facade (partially covered by a more recent building) has a portal
with piers and monolithic lunette; the ring of the round archivolt (inspired by
the Pisan taste) proposes vegetal motifs obtained from stiacciato (bunches of
grapes, wicker weaves, palmettes and flowers are recognizable).
A frieze with stylized racemes frames the architrave decorated with a Romanesque
cross placed to distinguish square rosettes, according to a motif already worked
in the parish church of Sant'Agnese.
Internally the church is divided into two sectors by a transverse arch. The arch
is set on a cruciform pillar leaning against the side wall.
Both half-columns, at the base of which bulls are visible, have a richly
decorated capital. The capital of the right half-column, damaged at the top, is
carved with rough anthropomorphic figures separated by vine shoots and bunches
of grapes.
The apse, divided by two half-cylindrical pilasters, has been built in the
Lombard manner and two blind arches run along the side walls near the
presbytery. The apse single-lancet window has an archivolt decorated with the
usual rosette motif and, in the ricassatura, two columns, one of which is
tortile, support the internal arch. This decorative solution is very rare to
find in rural Tuscan churches and testifies to the cultural liveliness present
in Valdelsa
in the Middle Ages; vivacity that acquires autonomous characteristics in the
fusion of local elements with others of different origins. A language elaborated
thanks to the presence of the
Via
Francigena, a vehicle for the transmission of cultural languages of
Lombard-Po origin, and the use of properly local languages, such as the
decorative tradition of
Volterra.
S. Pietro a Cedda - constitutes one of the more beautiful example of Romanesque
architecture in Valdelsa. It has only one nave, one apse and many beautiful
Romanesque stonework decorations. There is also a tabernacle of the Mino da
Fiesole school. The Florentine school triptych from this church dates from about
1300 and is exhibited in art museum of Colle di Val d'Elsa.
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