MEDIEVAL VILLAGES ON MOUNT AMIATA

SANTA FIORA (GR)

The Santa Fiora square represents the oldest part of the town and is dominated by the medieval defensive structures of the Aldobrandeschi, of which the square tower, the sloping bases and the part of the clock tower remain (the battlements are a nineteenth-century reconstruction) with a glazed ceramic by Della Robbia in the centre (surviving element of the original clock). In the final part of the square stands the Renaissance-style Palazzo Sforza (16th century), now the seat of the town hall, which rests its structure on the medieval defensive bases. Inside the palace, restoration work has brought to light a cycle of frescoes from the Roman School of the 16th century, a rare example of profane art in the Amiata area.
Once past the Porta di San Michele, we find ourselves in front of the Peschiera, the splendid and original garden-park of the Sforza counts, already a trout farm in medieval times, where the spring waters of the Fiora river are collected.
Must-sees: The Pieve delle Sante Flora e Lucilla (located in the historic center), the famous “Terracotte Robbiane” in the historic center

ABBADIA SAN SALVATORE (SI)

A summer and winter resort, the most important and best equipped in the Monte Amiata area. Of the Abbey of San Salvatore, which for about a millennium radiated its power throughout the eastern Amiata area, only the church and crypt remain. From history and legend we learn that this monastery, first Benedictine then Cistercian, was founded around 750 AD by order of the Lombard King Rachis, who initially intended it to control the Via Francigena, which ran along the valley immediately below. Must-sees include the Abbey, the Ermeta church, on the road leading to the mountain, the historic village, the Mining Museum Park, the Verde lake, the sports citadel, the San Filippo spa (on the road leading to Siena, 16 km from Macinaie), where you will find some very renowned sulphurous waters.

ROCCALBEGNA (GR)

The area that connects Amiata to the thermal area of ​​Saturnia is characterized by the upper course of the Albegna river. Pastures, broadleaf forests, cereal fields and limestone spurs form the landscape of this route. The entire area boasts Neolithic and Etruscan settlements.
Roccalbegna owes its “urban dignity” to the Republic of Siena, which dominated it from 1296 to 1751. The most notable monument is the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, in the main square where the Town Hall and the Civic Tower with the clock also overlook.
On the main altar of the church you can admire the triptych by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the Crucifixion by Francesco Nasini.
In the Church of the SS.mo Crocifisso, with the bell gable that stands near the ancient Cassero, the SS: Crocifisso attributed to Luca di Tommè (1360) is preserved.
Among the most important civil buildings are the Palazzo Bichi-Ruspoli and the Palazzo della Lana

PIANCASTAGNAIO (SI)

Situated on a plateau with rich vegetation of ferns and chestnut trees, Piancastagnaio presents an appearance characterised by a very valuable Aldobrandesco Castle, the scene of historical episodes linked not only to the Aldobrandeschi but also to the Orsini family, lords of Pitigliano in the late Middle Ages.
The Castle is now used as a Museum and for other cultural initiatives and has undergone a system of restorations that have enhanced its historical and architectural grandeur. Worthy of note are the mighty medieval walls, which completed the natural defenses of the ancient town, testifying to a tormented history of that community, affected and oppressed by the expansionist aims of both the Aldobrandeschi and Orsini families, and of the Abbey of San Salvatore.
The new part of the town is charming and very pleasant, with buildings located on the original plateau, which gave the town its name, leaving however large green spaces, occupied by centuries-old chestnut trees and two suggestive sanctuaries, the church of the Madonna di San Pietro and that of San Bartolomeo, inside which a fresco of the Sienese school from the fourteenth century can be found.

ARCIDOSSO (GR)

Pyramidal city, with the fairy-tale Aldobrandesco castle on the top, initially surrounded by two other towers. The ancient village maintains its original appearance intact. In Corso Toscana, the commercial heart of the town, are the Fonti del Poggiolo, a neo-Gothic cast iron monument from 1833, previously located in the Piazza del Duomo in Grosseto. On the left you can admire the round arch of Porta Castello that leads to the historic center divided into the districts of Castello, Codaccio and Sant'Andrea. In the Terziere di Castello is the Teatro degli Unanimi, recently restored and operational headquarters of the activities of the Accademia Amiata. A few meters away we find the Church of San Niccolò (patron saint of the town) which houses a valuable holy water stoup by Pietro Amati and a wooden crucifix from the sixteenth century.
In the Terziere di Codaccio, which is accessed from the Porta dell'Orologio, there is Via Talassese, where the house of Davide Lazzaretti stands (ed.).
The Terziere di Sant'Andrea includes the Church of the same name. The high altar is beautiful, once the tomb of Gian Domenico Pèri. Between Arcidosso and Montelaterone, we find the Pieve ad Lamus, Romanesque, containing a miraculous wooden Madonna and beautiful bas-reliefs

SEGGIANO (GR)

63 km from Grosseto, 60 from Siena and 20 from Vetta, the municipality has only one hamlet: Pescina and enjoys a territory of about 50 km903 of surface mostly characterized by the presence of olive trees which, with their oil, represent one of the major sources of income of the country. Attested for the first time in 1265, with the name "Casale Senganu", initially Seggiano was only a settlement belonging to the Abbey of San Salvatore; at the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, an autonomous community had formed on which, towards the middle of the century, the Abbey of Sant'Antimo also claimed rights: the jurisdictions of the abbey were soon superseded by the Sienese dominion with the institution in XNUMX of officials appointed by the city, the acquisition of the Cassero and the strengthening of the defensive structures.
Among the olive trees (of the typical variety of the Seggianese olivastra) appears, as you approach Seggiano, the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Carità, one of the most unusual and interesting religious monuments of Amiata. It is the only complex in the Siena area of ​​late sixteenth-century architecture linked to the taste of Central European Mannerism. It was built after a famine with devastating consequences, it had already been started in 1588, the completion probably dates back to 1603. The exterior, with a complex and very rich facade and a four-segmented brick dome is particularly suggestive.