Discover Chianti

Castagnolo

Turning into via delle Rose at the beginning of via Grevigiana one reaches Castagnolo. The farm buildings rise over the remains of old fortifications and Medieval defensive structures built just outside of the old walls. From November 1312 to January 1313 the Holy Roman Emperor Henry Vll was stationed here during his vain attempt to overcome Florence. The adventures of Emperor Henry Vll and of his brother Baldwin of Luxemburg, Archbishop of Trier, as described in a codex of the Coblenz Archives, were little more than violent raids and pillages. Abandoned by his Pisan allies, with an army decimated by epidemics, the Emperor dismantled camp in January, and headed down towards Siena; he was poisoned to death shortly after in Buonconvento.

Villa Le Corti

The Corsini family owned a fortified house on this site since the 15th century. The present villa was designed by the architect and painter Santi di Tito at the end of the 16th century. An ashlar doorway bearing the Corsini coat-of-arms is the entrance to the monumental villa which has a rectangular plan and two towers on its northern side. The villa’s chapel was decorated by the prolific Counter-Reformation painter, Bernardino Pocetti. They say that Pocetti couldn’t finish the work because he missed the company of a rowdy band of friends with whom he spent his evenings in Florence in a tavern near the Ponte alla Carraia. In the end the Corsini had no option but to employ the whole party of artisans and commoners, who were brought in from the city to the villa. In 1697 Giovan Battista Foggini, a sculptor and architect of the Medici, redesigned the avenue leading to the house: row of cypresses ending in a clearing with a statue of Apollo and the Dragon, symbol of the Corsini’s power. At the back of the villa is the Italian garden, whose origins are not recorded, but most probably was planted in the late 19th or early 20th century. The villa has extraordinary cellars under the main building and the lawn which surrounds it: protected from the damp by a tiled roof, which was then covered with earth and grass. Not far from Le Corti, on the other side of the road, Prince Tommaso Corsini built a chapel in 1887 to house the family tombs. The small building was designed by the architect Micheli, and frescoed by Gaetano Bianchi, who also decorated some of the villa’s rooms. The chapel’s architecture, its decoration and furnishings are all in Gothic taste.

Chiesa dei Cappuccini

Taking via Grandi where the provincial road turns towards the town, a short uphill road leads to the Church of Sant’Andrea Corsini. The owner of Villa Le Corti, Marquis Bartolomeo Corsini, commissioned the building of the church and the monastery between 1647 and 1656, paying for the work himself. It was built to house the Capuchin monks who previously lived inside the town walls. The church is a simple structure with a single nave, preceded by a portico. There is a Madonna and Child by Andrea della Robbia in the sacristy.

The Map of The Area

Points of Interest on The Road from San Casciano to Mercatale

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