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.

What to see in the local area

Castiglion Ghinibaldi (NOT OPEN TO VISITORS) Castelpietraio