The monastery of San Guglielmo is now reduced to ruins, with the monastic quarters in a highly advanced state of decay. The abbey church, however, remains relatively intact in the northern part, with its protruding apse overlooking the bed of a stream. The church was likely a single rectangular hall with one apse, covered by pointed barrel vaults. The interior space is divided into three naves, with two opposing pairs of quadrangular half-pillars forming two pointed ‘diaphragm arches.’ The eastern bay coincides with the raised presbytery area. The facade is partially buried and features a gabled roof, recently restored. The original design included three linteled doors with an extruded lunette.

During the 14th century, the monastery began to decline and was abandoned. In 1597, Giovanni Niccolucci da Batignano, prior of Montecassino, withdrew there to live as a hermit and reestablished a community of Augustinian friars. On that occasion, the complex was restored—evidenced by the large 17th-century quadrangular windows still visible in the walls. The building was abandoned again in the second half of the 18th century.

Description: The following are honored: the saint’s places of life (Monastery of Malavalle), now-ruined buildings dating to the mid-12th and early 13th centuries; the saint’s relics (humerus, jawbone, and two tibias) now in the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Castiglione della Pescaia; the skull, spurs, helmet morion, banner, and hair shirt, kept in the parish of Tirli; and other bone fragments preserved in the Church of Braccagni.

Entry into use: 1157
Relic: Bones, Fabric, Specific Objects
Location: Woods
Notes on the collection: Currently, only one ex-voto remains.
Type of ex-votos: Goldsmithing objects
Current preservation: For security reasons, the current location is omitted.

Below, we refer to the cell of San Guglielmo, later a Guglielmite and Augustinian settlement. In 1156, the hermitage cell was built near the Stabulum Rodis, where, according to tradition, the Guglielmite settlement later developed.
The monastery was founded by Saint William of Malavalle.

We recount here an interesting legend about San Guglielmo, as told by local devotees. According to them, Guglielmo arrived in Maremma and, after crossing the marshy plain of Braccagni, reached a hill near Buriano where a huge cork oak grew. Since it was hollow, San Guglielmo retreated to live inside it. One day, some girls fetching water from a nearby spring saw San Guglielmo emerge from the oak, now appearing as a wild man. He asked the girls to inform the lord of Buriano, Count Goffredo, that he wished to speak with him. As he explained this, Guglielmo helped the girls fetch water, filling containers called “barlette.” He then loaded the barlette onto donkeys—but upside down, with the openings facing the ground. The girls began shouting about the miracle.

News of the event spread among the inhabitants of Buriano, who then began visiting San Guglielmo’s tree, where he taught them and instructed them to use agrimony, also called “San Guglielmo’s herb,” which repels snakes and heals their bites. These events even convinced Count Goffredo, who gifted San Guglielmo land on Monte Pruno.

It is also said that San Guglielmo drove a dragon from the woods of Malavalle, and to this day, a bone believed to belong to the slain dragon is kept in the rectory of the Church of Tirli.

As for the cork oak, until 1964, there was indeed a large cork oak called “La Sugherona,” and local children were told they were born inside it. Even today, many devotees in Buriano possess splinters of the tree, treating them as relics. [Information from G. Batini, *Gli alberi della fede in Toscana, Prodigi, miracoli, leggende e folklore*, Florence, Le Lettere 1998, pp. 107–112].

The veneration of Guglielmo extends throughout the Castiglione della Pescaia area, as his relics were likely brought to Castiglione as early as the 13th century. The cult remains active in the Church of Buriano and the Church of Sant’Andrea Apostolo in Tirli, where San Guglielmo’s skull is kept, along with a pair of spurs, a helmet morion, a banner, and a hair shirt said to have belonged to the saint.

This entry was compiled by Beatrice Sordini and Isabella Gagliardi.

Pope Clement III included the hermitage of San Guglielmo among the benefices of the Grosseto diocese.

58043 Castiglione della Pescaia GR, Italy