Santa Maria a Poneta, with its rural hamlet, is the typical country church meant for the local population, and holds a fascinating, millenary history.
The fact that it is located on a branch of the road that lead from Florence to Volterra, and close to the valley bottom once crossed by the Via Francigena (the Frankish Road), leads to suppose that in the early Middle Ages the church also offered hospitality to the numerous wayfarers and pilgrims.
Scholars date the construction of the primitive building between the late 900’s and the following century, but the first certain news on the “de Pinita” church date back to the 12th century, in addition to knowing the names of its rectors, on 15th August 1260, Goto Graziani promised, in the name of the population, 12 bushels of wheat to the Florentine army departing for Montalcino. In the Pontifical rationes decimarum of 1276, 1296 and 1302, the contribution of the “Sancte Marie de Pineta” population amounted to three lire and two soldi.
Property of the Commune of Linari up to 1352, in the 15th century it passed under the patronage of the Florentine Nobili family. The maps of the Captains of the Guelph party clearly show that Antonio de Nobili was the owner of all the surrounding land and of the small neighbouring hamlet “called Poneta”; he was probably the one who requested the construction of the new parsonage and the addition of the coat of arms of the Nobili family on the facade of the church.

On 22nd November 1746, the pastoral visit documented that “... the Church is in good condition, with the walls rebuilt in part and two new stucco altars.” Restorations are in Baroque style, after the fashion of those times, but all the new country building built around it maintain the rigour of Tuscan tradition.
All these renovation works were motivated by the fact that the nearby Poppiano Estate became one of the wild boar hunting grounds preferred by the new Grand Dukes of Tuscany and, above all, by Leopold of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine from 1765 to 1790; the chronicles recount that “he retinue and many of the Court stopped at the Poneta inn where they could change horses and, above all, savour many a good glass of red wine”. A persistent lack of parishioners made the whole complex undergo progressive degradation, in 1878 the cistern for water collection was built close to the barn. A meritorious intervention made in 1929 eliminated all the 18th-century plastering, bringing to light the Romanesque walls in sandstone filaretto. This was the last intervention until 1986, when this church was finally annexed to the church of Sant’Andrea a Vico. Due to its historical importance and relevance of the building, the whole complex is subject to Law no. 1089 of 1939 which safeguards architectural goods. The new owners, who acquired the property from the Florentine Curia in 1993, have restored the entire complex, bringing the old hamlet back to life and creating one of the most exclusive Coutry Houses in the area.