Monastery of San Martino

The remains of the female monastery of San Martino in Gello – later named after San Giustino – are located in the town of the same name, 2.5 km from the historic center of Camaiore. Inside, the monastery housed nuns who, just like the monks of the Monastery of San Pietro alla Badia, followed the rule of San Benedetto. The monastic complex consisted of a church with a bell tower, a garden and a cloister, as well as including the nuns' cells and the refectory. The whole was surrounded by walls that are still partially visible today, as is the church without a roof. Presumably built in the 12th century to serve the monastery, the building is in Romanesque style with a gabled façade (with two slopes) and consists of a single hall and a semicircular apse. Inside a private area – and therefore not accessible to visitors – the remains of the ancient bell tower and the small eighteenth-century bell tower also survive, along with traces of the cloister, where the well and the internal wall of one of the eight nuns' cells remain standing.
According to oral tradition, the year of foundation of the monastery dates back to 1089, while the first document attested on the complex is dated 1148. This is the papal bull with which Pope Eugene III, in addition to placing the monastery under apostolic protection and recognizing its possessions, endows it with the privilege of owning a cemetery and receiving lay brothers inside. In addition, the nuns were recognized with the right to nominate the priests of the churches under their jurisdiction. In 1188, with a further papal bull, Clement III confirmed all the benefits conferred by the pope from Versilia. A document from 1248 attributes the patronage of San Martino di Gello to a certain Simuccio of the nobles of Montemagno, while in the second half of the century there was a substantial documentary silence that could be explained by a temporary abandonment of the complex due to war events. News of the monastery is provided only in 1347 in a contract attesting to the presence of eight nuns inside. In a slightly later document, dating back to 1366, the economic decline of the complex begins to be felt, which seems to worsen in the following decades, so much so that during the pastoral visit of 1383 the nuns, now reduced in number, are invited to repair it. In 1405 the monastery is definitively suppressed, while the church remains in use until the twentieth century. Over the centuries, however, there are signs of decay. In 1710 the bell tower is partially in ruins and during the eighteenth century a smaller tower is erected. The latest events of the monastery are linked to continuous changes of ownership. First state-owned and then sold to private individuals, the complex passes into the hands of the rev. Priest Masseangelo Masseangeli who is responsible for a partial restoration of the church in 1874. The intervention, attested by an epigraph placed on an internal wall of the church, mainly concerns the roof which is raised. But already in 1944 the conditions of the building and especially of the roof were terrible. In 1963 the church was acquired by Mrs. Maria Luisa Araujo who tried in every way to safeguard it, but finding herself in difficulty for the restoration, she decided to donate it to the Municipality of Camaiore. In recent years, by will of the Ceragioli Administration and thanks to the interest of the Archaeological Group of Camaiore, an intervention to consolidate the church has been carried out. With the placement of a cage made of metal crosspieces, the certain collapse of the building was avoided, even if to this day its conditions remain critical.


The Gello capital
From the church of the monastery of Gello comes a capital in Apuan marble sculpted on all four faces, datable between the second half of the 9th and the 10th century AD. The fact that it was found inside the church could suggest an origin of the complex even older than that recorded by oral tradition (1089). Its original location as well as much other information about it remain unknown. Perhaps it was made in an earlier period for a first cenoby (community of monks gathered under the same rule of a monastery) present in the locality of Agellum, but it cannot be excluded that it comes from the male monastery of San Pietro alla Badia (Camaiore).
The capital has a cubic shape and is in good condition. The hole made on one of the four faces reveals that the artifact was reused as a holy water stoup according to a practice that was widespread in medieval Tuscany. Entirely covered with engravings, it has a thin groove that serves as a frame on the upper and lower edges, four human heads at the top of the corners and geometric, zoomorphic and abstract figures on the sides. The dating is very controversial, as the work seems to be unique within the Lucca panorama. Although it has been classified by many as Lombard, some of its discordant characteristics suggest a later production. In fact, abstract early medieval motifs survive in the capital, but compared to the Merovingian and Visigothic works of the 6th-7th centuries and the Lombard works of the 8th, no references to the classical decorative repertoire are inserted – except to a very superficial extent. Furthermore, figurative elements typical of the local sculptural tradition are identified and can be dated around the year 1000. For these and other reasons, it is not possible to classify the capital as a purely Lombard product, but we tend to date it between the second half of the 9th and the 10th century, or in a phase of transition to the Proto-Romanesque in which the motifs of early medieval sculpture still survive. A hinge work and of extreme interest, the Gello capital is today exhibited at the Villa Guinigi Museum. A marble reproduction made with 3D scanning is visible at the Civic Archaeological Museum of Camaiore.