The sanctuary of Santa Maria alla Ginestra was called in ancient times "di Castelvecchio", taking its name from its proximity to the site on the slopes of the hill behind it where the military castle of Leuna was located.

The site was actually inhabited long before, given the discoveries that have been made, among other things, in the vicinity of the Sanctuary. The Etruscan well that is now located in its vicinity is a very eloquent example. The territory was an important border between the Diocese of Arezzo and that of Fiesole.

Moreover, also according to the organization of the plebates, the church was part of the Pieve di Galatrona, while the other church of Levane, not far away and placed outside the walls of the fortified village of "Corte di Leuna" (see card), which was dedicated to San Martino, was suffragan of the Pieve di Presciano, so there was also a plebate limit. The church is already present in the "Decimarii" at the end of the XIIIth century with some real estates that favoured its economic life.

The church was much venerated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries thanks to the Marian cult. The church, from the seventeenth century, began to have to deal with a growing instability of the land that forced the religious authorities to intervene at numerous junctures, as at the end of the century when it was affected by a major restructuring. In the eighteenth century it suffered a drastic loss of importance that made it a sign of the presence of some hermits who lived in the room above the sacristy. The name "Madonna della Ginestra" dates back to this period.

At the end of this century the new church was built in the centre of the new village that had developed on the bottom of the valley. A notable intervention on the church was carried out in 1902 when, in order to make it more stable, two side chapels were added and the church was lengthened by a third with the construction of the rear apse. In 1957/58 a decisive intervention started from a re-foundation with the realization of a draining foundation and with the removal of the twentieth-century lateral additions. The intervention left the church in the conditions in which it is visible today.

The fresco on the altar is attributed to Bernardino Daddi, a painter active in the 15th century.