Memories dating back long ago tell that the relic of the Holy Nail came to Colle di Val d’Elsa from Rome in the ninth century as a precious legacy from a French bishop. In the years after the death of Charlemagne, during a period of intense contacts between the Holy See and the Holy Roman Empire, the French bishop received the precious relic directly from the pope’s hands to take back to his homeland. During his return trip to France, somewhere around Viterbo, the bishop fell gravely ill, and before dying gave the nail to his traveling companion, a priest from Bibbiano. From that moment the relic was the property of the priest, who took it to Bibbiano, not far from Colle di Val d’Elsa, where he took careful care of it until, on his deathbed, he decided to donate it to the first of the two towns, Colle and San Gimignano, to arrive there and claim it. Without hesitation, as soon as they heard the news, the people of Colle formed a procession and reached the priest before the people of San Gimignano, thus receiving the precious relic which they then took back to their city. Since then Colle has been the faithful custodian of the sacred relic, which was first placed in the ancient Pieve a Elsa. In the late twelfth century the archpriest Albert of Chiatina, one of the most illustrious devotees of the Holy Nail, for security reasons moved the relic to the chapel of the Pieve . . .