Santa Margherita, Cortona

The church was originally the site of a small oratory dedicated to San Basilio, and built by Camaldolese monks in the 11th century.

Damaged during the 1258 siege of the town by Arezzo, the church and adjacent convent were rebuilt in 1288 by efforts led by Margherita di Cortona, herself a Franciscan tertiary, and dedicated to Saints Basil, Egidius, and Catherine of Alexandria.

By 1330, the Cortonese had constructed a larger church designed by Giovanni Pisano, in part to house her relics, exhumed in 1456, that had become an object of veneration.

The rich marble mausoleum on the left of the transept by the Sienese workshops and the saint's silver casket (1774) at the main altar, displaying her incorrupt body, was designed by Pietro Berrettini.

The first altar on the left had an altarpiece depicting Saints Louis of Toulouse, Francis, Dominic, and Margaret by Francesco Vanni.