Mythical and legendary place, today mostly chosen as an exclusive destination for unforgettable weddings, the Abbey of San Galgano is undoubtedly one of the most evocative places in Tuscany. The great abbey of San Galgano of which the evocative ruins remain today is in fact linked to the well-known legend, fueled by the “Arthurian” myth of the Sword in the Rock which then stimulated directors and screenwriters. In fact, it seems that the Abbey was born in the beginning as a chapel and small monastery on Mount Siepi, a place where, according to legend, the Chiusdinese knight Galgano Guidotti retired to a hermit life and where he stuck his sword into the stone before dying, about a year later from that event (around 1181). A century later the construction works of the abbey were completed (consecrated in 1288) and its importance grew until the 13th century when it became the most powerful Cistercian foundation in Tuscany. The origins of a crisis in the imposing structure date back to the famines and plague of 1300 which caused a profound crisis in the monastic community. This worsened throughout the following century, up to a semi-abandonment of the monastery. In 1500 the abbey, reduced numerically to the bone, was entrusted to a commendatory abbot who gave the coup de grace to the complex, also selling the lead present in the roof covering. Shortly thereafter, a slow process of decay began which, in 1786, worsened by a lightning bolt that also caused the bell tower to collapse. The subsequent restorations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of a conservative nature have made it possible to maintain what today remains of this imposing Abbey, the ruins that each year attract thousands of visitors from all over the world.