The Co-cathedral of SS. Marziale and Alberto in Colle Val d'Elsa

The Age of the First Bishops

After the death of the first bishop, work on the cathedral slowed due to the lack of funds, until Mary Magdalene of Austria, the wife of Cosimo II who had been assigned the government of the city, intervened decisively.  Thus the roof could be built in 1619, although the number of bays was reduced to four from the five originally planned, and the high altar was erected.
Cosimo della Gherardesca, the second bishop, procured all the furnishings and holy vessels for liturgical use, to enable the solemn celebration of the feast of the patron Saint Martial on 1 July 1630, despite the fact that use of the church was still limited to the area near the transept and the altar. On 5 November 1632, Bishop Cosimo blessed the first stone of the new bell tower, left unfinished, next to which is, still today, the entrance to the ancient chapel earlier used as a baptistery on the left flank of the cathedral. Here too can be seen the façade of the ancient Pieve di San Salvatore. On the right flank was built the entrance to the crypt underneath the church; it has three altars and wall paintings and is used by the Confraternita di Misericordia (Brotherhood of Mercy) from which it takes its name. On the third Sunday of October in 1658, the sixth bishop of Colle, Giovan Battista Buonaccorsi, definitively consecrated the cathedral. The interior decoration of the side chapels, altars, and paintings continued throughout the entire seventeenth century, but the constant lack of funds determined the definitive renunciation of the plans to build a great dome.