The village of Chianni and its church belonged to the bishop of Volterra until the 13th century, although there was no lack of contrasts both with the Cadolingi counts and with the municipality of San Gimignano for its control. From a document of 1061 we know that at what time the church was equipped with a cloister, what is not clear is where the church was given that a document of 1210, citing the properties then belonging to the parish church, mentions the Pieve vecchia farm, a place considered the primitive seat of the parish church. In the same document, speaking of the church, it is defined as domus ecclesia, confirming that in that year the parish church had already been built, but the same document always states that the building did not exist in 1174. In the church there was also a chapter of canons of which the names of such a canon Bello, working here in 1221 and of a canon Rogerio in 1237, remain. What is certain is that around 1200, in the same period in which the Gambassi castle was formed, the pleban complex was renovated giving it the appearance visible today. Traces of the church previously built here remain only in the transept, and it was a church with a basilica plan. In 1224 the construction was not to be completed since still in that year the municipality of Gambassi charged a tax for the expenses of the church, as well as for the maintenance of the roads and public sources The name of one of the masters who worked in the parish it has remained engraved in the capital of the second column on the left and it is a certain Johannes Bundivulus, Italianized in Giovanni Bondi of Volterra. The workers who worked here were almost certainly Volterra given the link of feudal dependence that still bound it to the city and also to the repetition here of some characteristics of the Cathedral of Volterra. The parish, despite belonging to a vast territory consisting of 21 suffragans and was the beneficiary of various papal privileges, was not rich between the end of the 13th and the mid-14th century, in fact in 1276 it paid only 7 lire and 17 money in taxes for the tithe, a figure that will remain more or less constant in the years to come; The situation was also worsened by Pope Boniface VIII who in 1301 revoked the assets and privileges that his predecessors had conferred on the parish priests of Chianni. The name of some of its rectors has been handed down such as the parish priest Benni di Ugolinello di Ranuccino mentioned in 1182 or as Jacopo archpriest in 1252, and finally Baldo and Paganello are mentioned for the 14th century. Together with the parish priest and the members of the chapter of canons, some simple priests also lived in the parish such as Vernaccio and Rollando, cited respectively in 1183 and 1231. Two companies were also based here in the 14th century: the Compagnia di Santa Croce founded in 1348 and the Compagnia di Santa Maria founded in 1360 and reserved for priests. From the second half of the century, the municipality of Gambassi took care of the life of the parish through its statutes which also established the use of the church and how to maintain the property. In 1356 the bishop Filippo Belforti elevated the church to the seat of the Caposesto della Valdelsa for the diocese of Volterra. In the 15th century the church was visited several times by the bishop of Volterra and on the occasion of each visit a report was drawn up on the state of the parish. From these acts we know that in 1413 there were five altars in the church but also that in that period a corner of the structure had collapsed [18] which had to be repaired quickly since in the reports of 1422, 1437 and 1443 the structure was judged in good conditions [18]. Subsequently something began to get worse since in 1465 it is written that the roof was unsafe and in 1501 even in the walls there were deep cracks that led to a profound renovation in 1520. Other works were carried out around 1550 when the choir was enlarged by replacing the original Romanesque apse with a scarsella [18]. In 1686 on the facade an eye was still open on the model of the cathedral of Volterra, an eye that was transformed into a rectangular window in 1782 by the archpriest Corsi who in that period had restoration work carried out. The facade over time gave signs of an imminent collapse and in 1842 it was consolidated by means of two buttresses; in 1879 it was declared a national monument immediately after restorations were undertaken which led to the elimination of any additions made in the Baroque era. In 1957 the remains of the ancient Romanesque apse were found, during the consolidation and restoration works carried out by the superintendence of the monuments of Florence, under the then parish priest Don Ferdinando Porciani A new renovation campaign was carried out in 1979 under the direction of Superintendence of Architectural Heritage for the provinces of Florence and Pistoia.
