The Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore is a large Benedictine monastery in the Italian region of Tuscany, 10 km south of Asciano. Its buildings, which are mostly of red brick, are conspicuous against the grey clayey and sandy soil—the Crete senesi which give this area of Tuscany its name.
It is a territorial abbey whose abbot functions as the bishop of the land within the abbey's possession, even though he is not consecrated as a bishop.
It is the mother-house of the Olivetans and the monastery later took the name of Monte Oliveto Maggiore to distinguish it from successive foundations at Florence, San Gimignano, Naples and elsewhere.
The Museo d'Arte Sacra della Val d'Arbia is a small museum of religious art in Buonconvento, in the Val d'Arbia to the south of Siena, in Tuscany in central Italy. It contain a number of paintings by important artists of the Sienese School, among them Duccio di Buoninsegna, Sano di Pietro and Pietro Lorenzetti.:75 The museum is housed in the Palazzo Ricci Socini, close to the parish church of Santi Pietro e Paolo.
