The origin of San Miniato goes back to Etruscan and Roman times as can be seen by the remains of those civilizations: the ruins of necropolis of Fontevivo, tables, marble statuesand bronze works found in the Montecalenne and Montappio excavations.

Colonized by the Augustan legionaries San Miniato later was a military post with the name of "Quarto", but only as a consequence of the Longobards' invasion it becomes a village. In 783 the Longobards built a

church here and consacrated itto the martyr Saint Miniato,whence the present name of the town.

The castle was built in 962 by the Emperor Otto i who founded there the seat of Imperial Vicars with jurisdiction the all of Tuscany.

It was also the residence of those marquis among which there was Boniface, marquis and vicar of the Emperor, father of the Countess Matilde of Canossa, born in San Miniato, it seems, 1046. Many German Emperors visited the town and remained here, stayed in the Imperial

Palace ( today the Bishop's Palace ): Frederic Barbarossa was there in 1167 and in 1178; Henry IV in 1184, 1186 and 1194; Otto IV in 1209. Apart from Emperors, San Miniato also had the honour of wecoming three Supreme Pontififfs, that is Gregory V in 996, Eugene IV in 1434 and Clement VII in 1553.

On his way home from Pisa, Saint Francisco of Assisi travelled to the top of San Miniato hill and founded the historic Convent on the year 1211. In the municipal period, the village, of Ghibelline faction, received many privileges from

Emperor Frederic II who had also built, around 1236, a complex of fortifications, the Rocca, where, according to historians, Pier delle Vigne, Frederic's chancellor, was emprisoned and died. From the XIIth century San Miniato began to be ruled by its own authoritiesand was involved in the fights which broke out among the surrounding towns.