Other areas

The municipal region of Monteriggioni
WESTERN area

ABBADIA ISOLA

The founding of the abbey of S. Salvatore all’Isola, which goes back to 1001, is owed to Ava, a noblewoman of the Lambardi di Staggia family. The place where the monastery stands - which, as its name suggests, was once surrounded by water - was chosen mainly for its strategic position controlling the Via Francigena, of which Borgonuovo (subsequently Abbadia Isola) already constituted a resting place at the end of the 10th century. Over the following centuries, one of the main functions of the abbey continued to be that of a hospital or a place of respite and hospitality for travellers on their way to Rome. After its foundation, the monastery experienced considerable economic and political success which continued through to the mid thirteenth century. Subsequently, in 1446, a slow decline began which led to the aggregation of the monastery with that of S. Eugenio near Siena.
Located on the edge of an extensive plain below the wooded slopes of Mount Maggio, the buildings are dominated by the Romanesque church with three naves and three apses. It is closely surrounded by a small hamlet and the remains of a medieval fortification. Inside the church are precious works of art, amongst which the beautiful polyptych over the main altar, created in the fifteenth century by the Siena born artist Sano di Pietro, is of particular note. To the right of the religious building there are still noticeable remnants of the bell tower and the monastery rooms, set out around the quadrangle of the ancient cloisters. Used for a long time as farm buildings, these are currently being restored and, in the future, will host guestrooms and a document centre for the Via Francigena.

CASTIGLIONALTO
(CASTIGLION GHINIBALDI)

Recorded since the 11th century as belonging to the Lambardi di Staggia family, the castle passed into the hands of the nearby Abbadia Isola in the following century. During the course of the 13th century it became the property of Ghinibaldo di Saracino, the husband of Sapia dei Salvani, while in the 14th century the castle passed to the Piccolomini family.
Despite many restorations, the castle demonstrates its medieval origins with the size of the walls and the style of the many openings. However, the overlapping arches in the internal courtyard and the doorway leading into it, as well as the brickwork church located alongside the fort, are the result of a sixteenth century restructuring.

HERMITAGE OF SANT’ANTONIO AL BOSCO

This hermitage which, like others in the area became part of the Augustine order in the 13th century, has been in existence since the 12th century. Today, there are still parts of the sixteenth century cloisters and the church that was rebuilt in the 19th century with material taken from the medieval building.

CASTELPIETRAIO

Recorded between the 12th and 13th centuries in a number of documents of the nearby Abbadia Isola, the oldest nucleus of the castle still has the remains of medieval buildings and towers, laid out around a courtyard. Transformed into a villa in the Renaissance period, it was subsequently the subject of other interventions up until fairly recent times. The complex still conserves a small modern chapel.

STROVE

Recorded in around the year 1000, the settlement of Strove belonged to the Lambardi di Staggia, the founders of the Abbadia Isola, to whom it passed at the end of the 11th century. During the next century it was given as a fiefdom to the Soarzi family who were later gradually replaced by the Republic of Siena.
The small village, located on a slightly raised plain, still preserves the typical structure of a medieval settlement with a round form and a close-knit sequence of buildings that face narrow and inclined alleyways. Immediately outside the inhabited area is the Romanesque church of S. Martino, a simple building with a single nave inside the apse, enriched by alternating rows of stone and brickwork. The entitling of the building to the Bishop of Tours, in France, can be attributed, in all probability, to the location of Strove along the Via Francigena, the place from which the veneration of the saints with distant origins spread widely in the medieval period.

PIEVE A CASTELLO

Established at the start of the 11th century but probably with much older origins, the ancient country church is now used for civic purposes. The old church, currently without its left nave, is a rare example of a religious building proceeding the Romanesque period. Another peculiarity of the complex is a small building with a central design located to the side of the church and of the same era. It is an ancient baptistery and was a fairly unusual building for rural churches in medieval Tuscany.

SCORGIANO

Like many others in the area this village has medieval origins but does not contain any noticeable traces of the period. Nonetheless, it merits attention due to the elegant villa built by the Bichi Borghesi family in the 17th century. Restructured over the following centuries with significant additions, such as the eighteenth century chapel with frescos by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini, it has a large park and various buildings annexed to the main body, such as the stables, the farm, the glasshouse and the lemon-house.

The municipal region of Monteriggioni
EASTERN area

LA POSTA

La Posta, situated along the Cassia Road not far from the crossroads which leads to the Castle of Monteriggioni, was a watering place for horses in the third decade of the 19th century. It lost this role a few years later due to the construction of the Siena-Empoli railway line and was transformed into an elegant villa with a park during the twentieth century.

STOMENNANO

Recorded for the first time in 1059 and then in further later documents, Stomennano was the site of a canonical community in the medieval period, although we do not know whether there was also a castle. The currently dominant structures are those of the beautiful seventeenth century villa built by the Accarigi and then Griccioli families, accessible along an avenue of ancient cypresses. The main body consists of two rectangular buildings placed one alongside the other and linked by an architrave supported by columns. These allow a view of the 19th century Romanesque style park around which the various buildings annexed to the villa are located. The garden located at the end of the cypress avenue was planted in the seventeenth century with geometric flowerbeds and hedges and polygonal water features with central putti.

POGGIOLO

The small rural area, also known as Porghiano in the medieval period still preserves, as the only evidence of this period, the church of S. Maria with a single nave built entirely in stone. Two interesting paintings by Rutilio Manetti, a painter from Siena who worked between the end of the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries, can be found inside.

LORNANO

A small and pleasant hamlet at the entrance to the Chianti area, Lornano conserves an ancient parish church dedicated to S. Giovanni and possibly founded before the year 1,000. The church is found in its eighteenth century version, the period in which the numerous paintings which decorate its interior were made.

BASCIANO AND VILLA PARISINI

In existence since the 12th century, Basciano is a small area on the top of a hill from which there is a splendid view of the surrounding countryside. It was widely restructured towards the end of the eighteenth century and still preserves the traces of the medieval period in the buildings on the northern side. In the church of S. Giovanni, which is accessed through a neo-Gothic ogival arch, there is a 14th century fresco and a 15th-16th century polyptych.
A few hundred metres from Basciano stands Villa Parisini, which takes its name from the family who became its owners in the mid nineteenth century. The current complex was built at the beginning of the 1750's on the request of the noble Sansedoni family and was restructured in the following century. The main quadrangular building is inspired by similar buildings of the Renaissance period, the period from which originate the numerous frescos which decorate both the interior and the exterior. Opposite is an Italian garden while behind is an ilex oak wood with avenues of a romantic atmosphere. The complex also contains a chapel, stables, a lemon-house and other service buildings.

SAN DALMAZIO

Situated along the Cassia road not far from Siena, the church of S. Dalmazio has medieval origins but is now seen in its eighteenth century guise. The recent restoration has brought to light the sober façade with its elegant terracotta framework and interior stuccos, completed by an articulated pictorial decoration.

UOPINI

The ancient origins of this site are evident in the church of S. Marcellino, S.Pietro and S. Erasmo. In effect, the building has a Romanesque form with a façade with sandstone and tufa masonry and a door decorated with stylised, geometric motifs. It also has an oratory built in the sixteenth century in honour of the Blessed Giovanni Colombini, who, in the middle ages, founded a hospital for pilgrims at Uopini.

The municipal region of Monteriggioni
SOUTHERN area

LA VILLA

This is an imposing fort of the medieval era, characterised by a massive rectangular stone tower with curtain walls and crenulated battlements. The building occupies the side of a quadrangular wall, also with its own crenulated walls, inside which are other partly original buildings.

CASTELLO DELLA CHIOCCIOLA

Famous, above all, for its resistance to the Imperial militias during the war of Siena (mid 16th century), the castle is characterised by a robust square tower with crenulated battlements. On one side there is a cylindrical tower which gives its name to the castle since it has a spiral circle providing access to the floors of the main tower. The two towers are enclosed by a series of other buildings whose origins, at least in part, are due to the transformation of the buildings into a villa in modern times.

COLLE CIUPI

The originally medieval village is now a small rural area with recently restored peasant cottages. In its centre the Romanesque church of S. Lorenzo still stands with a single nave and simple architectural lines. The value of the building lies in the cycle of frescos on the interior walls which, for the main part, go back to the fourteenth century and are attributed to the school of Duccio di Buoninsegna.

FUNGAIA

The small village, currently under restoration, is a rural habitat with stone houses enriched by brick loggias. The medieval origins of the hamlet, recorded in the 12th century, are made evident by the brickwork elements and the stone arches which appear in some buildings. Slightly to the west of the hamlet stands the church of S. Michele Arcangelo, with a nineteenth century facade and internal layout, mainly of the 17th century. Once again there are elements which testify to the medieval origins of the building, beginning with a Madonna with child which dates back to the mid fourteenth century in a fresco on one of the inside walls. The remnants of the medieval structure can be seen in the right-hand side and the end wall of the building, with a small wall belfry which was probably from the same period.

SANTA COLOMBA

The village has medieval origins but suffered serious damage in 1364 during the passage of the company of Giovanni Acuto (John Hawkwood). Of this period, the church, containing valuable frescos from the 14th century, and a defence tower which was later used as a bell tower for the religious building remain. Other remains of medieval walls can be seen in the base of the grandiose Renaissance villa which stands at the centre of the small hamlet and was built between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century by the Lord of Siena, Pandolfo Petrucci. Attributed to the Sienese architect Baldassarre Peruzzi, it was originally equipped with a majestic garden which was destroyed to make place for the subsequent extensions to the villa itself.

HERMITAGE OF S. LEONARDO AL LAGO

Recorded at the end of the 13th century, the hermitage stands on the margins of what was called, in the medieval period, the lake of Verano. The lake was situated south of Monteriggioni but is no longer in existence. When it became part of the congregation of the Hermit Brothers of St. Augustine in 1243, S. Leonardo it was aggregated to the nearby hermitage of Lecceto a few years later where it remained until 1516. At the start of the fourteenth century, the Blessed Agostino Novello, an important religious figure who had taken up residence during the last years of his life, died here.
A noteworthy element of the architectural complex is the beautiful church with a single nave built entirely in stone, excellently conserving the simplicity of its medieval lines. Inside, the small square apse is decorated by a cycle of 14th century frescos by the Siena born painter Lippo Vanni. To the side of the church, as well as the remains of a defensive wall with turrets, there are cloisters and a part of the monks' dwellings, amongst which should be highlighted the refectory frescoed by Giovanni di Paolo in the 15th century.

PYRAMID AND GRAND DUKE'S CANAL

Not far from the hermitage of S. Leonardo stands the so-called Pyramid, an obelisk to the memory of the eighteenth century draining of the area below, which is still known today as the Pian del Lago [the Lake Plain]. The Pyramid also signals the start of the Grand Duke's canal, a tunnel of around two kilometres long which served to permit the running off of the waters and which is perfectly preserved and still usable today.