Poggio a Vento
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Turning right after the last houses of Badia, the road circles the monastery’s park and continues up through the woods of the hill of Poggio a Vento. Near the top, the road forks.The left road goes to Rignana, in the municipality of Greve, and then joins the Strada del Poggio Testalepre.The dirt road on the right winds through woods and fields. The first turning on the right of this road reaches the hilltop where the Castle of Poggio a Vento once stood. This is one of the most panoramic spots in the area: in the direction of Badia, you see the hills of Tavarnelle and Barberino, Petroio and Castle of Fabbrica; on the other side, the hills of Panzano and, lower down, Rignana and San Martino in Cecione. Continuing straight ahead, instead of climbing the hill of Poggio a Vento, the dirt road passes several farmhouses, including Casa San Brizzi: all that remains of the Castle of Materaia, mentioned in 11th century records.
The Castle of Poggio a Vento is first mentioned in the 11th century. By the 13th century the fortified settlement was surrounded by defensive walls with towers and was already a free Commune. After 1267 the ownership of Poggio a Vento passed to the Buondelmonti, the family of Ruggero, then Abbot of Badia a Passignano.
In the course of the following century the castle became a rural village. The truncated tower, the stately house, which faces the courtyard, and the 12th century Romanesque Church of Sant’Andrea, remain of the original structure. The church was renovated in the 19th century, its entrance moved, and the interior space reduced. The fresco on the altar was also repainted with a Virgin Enthroned with Saints Andrew, Benedict and John Gualbert, probably by Filippo di Antonio Filippelli, known to be active in Badia a Passignano during the last decades of the 15th century.
A Note on Passignano
A Medieval farmhouse with an inscription on the facade is the birthplace of Domenico Cresti, the painter known as Il Passignano, born in 1559. The young painter frequented the abbey and owes the start of his career to the Abbot of Passignano. He began his apprenticeship in the workshop of the Florentine painter Girolamo Macchietti, then moved on to other workshops of artists of the circle of Vasari. His career straddled the transition from late Mannerist painting to that of the Counter-Reformation. After collaborating with Federico Zuccari on the frescoes of the dome of Florence’s Cathedral, he went to Rome in 1580, and then to Venice. Combining Tuscan drawing and warm, mellow Venetian colors, Cresti developed a style that conveys sincere empathy with the subjects portrayed. At the end of the century, before settling in Rome, the artist was commissioned to do the renovation works of the Badia. In Rome he came to be considered the most important of the Florentine painters. He returned from Rome in 1616 and continued his brilliant Career until his death in Florence in 1638.
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