Chiesa di San Jacopo al Tempio - San Gimignano, Italy - Legacy of Medieval Spiritual Warriors on Waymarking.com

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"Before the construction of the church, a different building lay on a part of this area unfortunately the very few remains found did not help to determine and interpret it. Its structure, which probably dates back to the first half of the 12th century , was made with some travertine elements and built on a levelling layer made of fragments of the same material; it was then largely demolished just to make room to the construction of the church.
The church of Santo Jacopo was also built on a thick levelling layer between late 12th century and the first decades of 1200. The lower part was made of travertine stones, accurately squared and smoothed, while the upper part was made of bricks. The façade has a beautiful vaulted-arch portal; on its lintel the carved cross of the Templar order lies on figured corbels. A refined oculus, wholly made of suitably moulded bricks, opens above it. On the sides there small one-opening windows surmounted by monolithic arches. A larger window and a small oculus open on the corresponding tribune. On the Façade, underneath the weathered roof, there is a series of thirteen original ceramic basins coming from Tunisia – a widely spread style in Pisa but also attested in the Valdesa region.
The interior is covered with vaults built on semi-pillars set up against the longer sides of the building.
The ground around the church was very soon turned into a graveyard. There are many graves from the 13th to the 18th century.
Besides being a place of prayers, the church was also a place of rest where hospitality was especially provided for the pilgrims walking along the Via Francigena, according to the customs of the Templar order. This function was confirmed by the discovery a pilgrim’s body with the famous Saint Jaques shell-shaped emblem on his right shoulder, buried near the northern side of the façade.
About 1250 AD the church and its surrounding area, originally located on the outskirts of the city, was closed within the second circle of walls which had an entrance door near there named after the church.
In 1311n the Templar order was abolished and the property of the church was handed down first to the Gerosolimitani order and then to other corporations. The building lost its function and was partly abandoned; a long-period decline began and continued up to the 17th century-
In 1637 the nuns of the neighboring Monastero di San girolamo asked and obtained the concession to build a linking bridge between the convent and the church; it was made of brick and originally it had some plaster decorated with false architectures."

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