The arch over the beginning of the Via Ricasoli, with
a seventeenth century fresco, representing the Blessed
Trinity with St Maurice and St Jerome, marks the
place of the old gate. The Via Romana runs out hence
to the Porta Romana. On the left is a somewhat ruined
palace, in the style of the Florentine Quattrocento,
now known as the Rifugio, built about 1474, probably
by Giuliano da Maiano, for the Abbot and monks of
San Galgano, whose device of the sword stuck fast in the
rock is seen still on the exterior. There is a curious
petition of theirs to the Signoria, dated May 31st, 1474,
in which they explain that they have begun this palace,
'* having a desire to convert their little income to the
honour and ornament of your City, and in some part to
the perpetual utility of that Abbey of yours," and that,
as times are bad, they want to be exempted from the
Gabella, and to have further aid from the State.^ Further
on is the great Augustinian convent of the Santuccio, in
the church of which the head of San Galgano is preserved
in a richly decorated reliquary. The Porta Romana,
formerly the Porta Nuova, was built early in the four-
teenth century by Agostino di Giovanni and Agnolo di

^ Wuovi Doanuffttif p. 24^.
