The village of Montemagno is situated in the

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

Calci Calci is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pisa in the Italian region Tuscany, located about west of Florence and about east of Pisa. Government ; ''Frazioni'' The main settlement is the municipal seat of La Pieve; the rest of ...

, Province of Pisa,

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, some 15 km East of

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

, 2 km East of

. The name Montemagno is vulgar for

Mons Ianus Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century ...

, Latin for Monte Giano, dedicated to the Roman god

Janus In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; la, Ianvs ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janu ...

(from whom we have the word January). The village is first mentioned in a charter of the in the year 780. The village is surrounded by olive groves. There are three churches in Montemagno. The oldest one is S. Martino, not any longer within the village proper (see below). In 1021 walls were erected around the village, but S. Martino was a few hundred meters away and left out. Within the walls a new church was erected in 1076 (the belltower was founded in 1786 and finished in 1811). The new church is named Santa Maria della Neve. The village continued to develop around the new church, and the old one was abandoned. The third church is a chapel and is named Chiesino di S. Rocco. It was erected in 1632 by the 90 grateful surviving inhabitants after the plague in 1630 took 272 lives in the village. In 1880, the comune of Montemagno was integrated into the comune of

. About 200 people live in the village today. On 15 February 1145 Pietro Bernardo Paganelli from Montemagno was elected the 167th Pope. He took the name

Pope Eugene III Pope Eugene III ( la, Eugenius III; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He w ...

References

*''La Storia di Calci'', Mario E. Martini, 1976, Reprint 2001, {{authority control Cities and towns in Tuscany Frazioni of the Province of Pisa