San Donato in Poggio
-
San Donato in Poggio was established in the Etruscan period.The ancient name “Poc” deriving from an Etruscan proper name, became “poggio” in the Low Middle Ages. The first small village rose around the parish church. Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV gave half of the castle, which was already fortified by the beginning of the 11th century, to the Guidi Counts. San Donato freed itself from Imperial rule in the course of the next century, then became a subject of Florence from 1218 onwards. Because of its strategic position, it was always crucial in the struggle between Florence and Siena: it was here, in fact, that representatives of the two cities met to sign the short-lived peace treaties of 1176 and 1255. In 1260, on the eve of the battle of Montaperti, the countrymen of the Florentine “contado”, called to arms by the Republic, gathered in San Donato. In 1289, the castle was partly destroyed by the army of Arezzo, at war with Florence. It was rebuilt shortly after, paid for by the Florentine Commune and the parish priest of San Donato, Bernardo Gherardini, who donated some of his land to extend the defensive walls. The sturdy Porta Fiorentina gate still rises high above the town houses, while only part of Porta Senese, damaged during the Second World War, was rebuilt. Along the walls is a watch tower with a crenellated walkway, supported by brick cobbles and small suspended arches; the civic bell still hangs in the garrison tower, in via del Giglio. There are many 13th century buildings within the town walls: small palazzos with doorways and windows framed in skillfully cut alberese ashlars, with both wide and pointed arches. The piazza opens up in the center of town, containing the public cistern, the Palazzo Pretorio, or governor’s palace, and Palazzo Malaspina, which takes up two sides of the square. Palazzo Malaspina first belonged to the Ticci, a San Donato family from whom several parish priests originated. In 1740 it passed on to the Malaspina family, with the marriage of the last Ticci heiress to the Marquis Carlo Antonio Malaspina. The Palazzo’s present appearance is the result of a renovation in a late Renaissance style, which added the rusticated pietra serena stone window frames and doorways to the plastered facade. The Oratory of Santa Maria della Neve, which was once the castle’s church, also faces the square. It was dedicated to Saint Thomas Aquinus, who is said to have stopped here. At the beginning of the 15th century it became the seat of the Compagnia della Madonna della Neve, or Brotherhood of the Madonna of Snow, founded in the first half of the 13th century. The church retains its 14th century structure, with a single nave and a square apse; new Baroque altars were added in the 1739 restoration.The main altarpiece was commissioned by Monna Tora di Nardo in 1375 and represents the Coronation of the Virgin with Saint Anthony Abbot, Saint Ludwig of Toulouse and the commissioner, with Saint Thomas Aquinus at their side. It is attributed to the Florentine painter Giovanni del Biondo.
Museo Ferrari
The small museum on Via del Giglio 47, displays an extraordinary quantity of objects that tell the story of the culture and traditions of the “contadini”, the peasant farmers of Chianti. Genoese engineer Emilio Ferrari (1915-1990) conducted a painstakingly detailed study of the region in the 1970s, when he bought a house in San Donato. The result is a unique collection which he later donated to the town. It includes a first section of household objects and carpenters’ shoemakers’ and blacksmiths’ tools. The second section is dedicated to the world of the “contadino”: the animals that helped him in his work, the tools for the production of wine and oil, and objects used in the rural home.
The road from San Donato to Tavarnelle passes the entrance of the Florence-Siena highway. To the left of this road, once stood the Church of San Martino a Cozzi, suppressed and demolished at the end of the 18th century. This church contained the beautiful 16th century panel by the Maestro di Tavarnelle, now exhibited at the Museo d’Arte Sacra in San Pietro in Bossolo. Further on, on the right past the Superstrada, rises the severe rectangular structure of Villa di Figlinelle. A document from 1079 mentions a cultivated plot of land known as the “colto di Figlinelle”. The name probably derives from the area’s ancient landowners, the Figlinelli, originally “figli di Ghinaldo”, sons of Ghinaldo, known as “Fighinaldi”, then “Fighineldi” or “Figlinelli”. The main point of interest of this itinerary is the Sanctuary of Santa Maria al Carmine al Morrocco which rises on a small hill a little further on, to the left of the main road.
-
Return to San Casciano in Val di Pesa