Description
MEDIEVAL CASTLE MONTERIGGIONI The Castle stands in a dominant position on a 236-meter hill from which you can see Monteriggioni, it is still surrounded today by a mighty wall with cylindrical and angular bastions on which runs a ramp that leads to the space in front of the entrance portal to the courtyard, a complex central courtyard with overlapping arches, the result of the sixteenth-century renovation as well as the portal that allows access and the brick church located to the side of the fortress. Its existence dates back to the 11th century when there was a castle with a courtyard of the Lambardi, built a short distance from the nearest castle of Monteriggioni to control the nearby Via Francigena. Passed to the bishops of Siena and then to the monks of Abbadia a Isola during the 12th century, it was destroyed by the Florentines in 1158 but the settlement was rebuilt. In 1265, right next to the current Via Cassia, a hospital was founded by Ghinibaldo dei Saracini, hence the name of the place, husband of Sapìa mentioned by Dante (Purgatory - Canto thirteen). From here she would have observed the defeat of her fellow citizens during the battle of Colle di Val d'Elsa. Saracini had lordly rights over the castle and received large profits from trade, reinvested in the purchase of numerous surrounding farms. The castle was then sold to the Municipality of Siena, which in 1271 sent a judge dependent on its Podestà and the Ghinibaldi hospital included in the jurisdiction of the great Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. In the 16th century, the castle passed to the Piccolomini. The current building, organized around a beautiful central courtyard, is composed of elements from different eras, with a prevalence of structures resulting from a 15th century renovation. Although remodeled several times, it clearly shows its medieval origins in the massive and compact mass close to the courtyard, renovated in the sixteenth century, in the masonry and in the shape of many openings. The small external church seems to have had the name of "Church of San Ruffiniano" and houses inside a marble plaque that was part of the thirteenth-century hospital complex that was located on the Cassia. From the same documents it seems that the stone column that divides the mullioned window of the bell tower also belonged to this complex. Inside we find a spectacular relief, partly macabre, with the representation of 4 angels and a little girl, it is from the nineteenth-twentieth century and it is not yet clear what it is intended to represent: it is located behind the altar of the chapel not accessible. The castle is now in disuse and abandoned. ENERGY CLASS "G" EPgl,nren ≥ 175 kWh/mq. year REQUEST: CONFIDENTIAL NEGOTIATION FIMIANI LUXURY REAL ESTATE www.fimiani.it segreteria@fimiani.it 055.48.42.59 - 379.1227014