Fortress of Castellina in Chianti

The mighty keep.	A view of the town dominated by the keep.

Castellina in Chianti can be  easily reached from the speedway Firenze-Siena going out for S.Donato and then following the indications .

This area of the Chianti was inhabited since the antiquity. On the base of recent excavations it seems that an Etruscan settlement existed between Casa Vico and Salivolpe, placed a few hundred meters  from the modern town of Castellina, hypothesis confirmed by the discovery of four Ipogee graves of the VII° century B.C. on the hill of Montecalvario. Subsequently the zone was also a Roman center and it was destroyed during the Gallic invasions.

The first written memories of this installation go back to the Middle Age however, in the 11th century, Castellina was named as a dependence of the near castle of Trebbia (correspondent to the today's site of Trebbia in the district of Radda in Chianti) that was under the control of the Counts of the Guidi family, to which is owed the construction of the original nucleus of the fortification. At this time the settlement was known as 'Castellina de' Trebbiesi'.

Already in 1193 the castle, thanks to an agreement signed by the Trebbiesi, was garrisoned by the Florentine army, and at the mid 12th century Castellina entered in the 'Chianti League' and subsequently became chief town of one of the three 'terzieri' (the others two had as chief towns Radda and Gaiole) in which the League was divided. The territory of the Chianti was for the whole  Middle Age theater of battles and struggles between the two powerful city-sate of Florence and Siena. Castellina, at dominion of one of the principal road of connection between the two cities, was one of the most advanced Florentine strongholds and it became strategically very important. In 1397 the castle was destroyed by the troops of the Duke of Milan, allied with the Senesi.

Few years after, in 1400, the Florentine Republic decided to strengthen the defenses of the town with the construction of more wide and thick town walls, having the form of irregular hexagon, alternated by numerous square towers, gifted of two gates and crowned, in the tallest point of the inhabited area, by a mighty rectangular Keep with bastioned curtains. Our days a large parts of the town walls and  towers still remains (although in more points enclosed in the modern residences), the two gates have disappeared, the Keep its still in perfect conditions, thanks to an accurate work of restoration carried on at the beginning of the century, and today it is the seat of the municipal administration.

This powerful fortifications had the baptism of  fire in the year 1452 withstanding for well 44 days to the siege of the Duke of Calabria army. It seems that for that time the fortifications were again strengthened  by the big Medicean architect  Giuliano da Sangallo. Despite this in 1478 the castle capitulated to the attack of the Aragonese army and, as the near castles, was sacked and destroyed. In the 1483 Castellina returned definitely under Florentine control. In 1774 the Chianti League was abolished, but the territory of the new 'Community of Castellina',  born with the reforms wanted by the Granduca Pietro Leopoldo, coincided almost perfectly with the ancient Terziere. The actual common is today in province of Siena.

One of the towers of the town walls	The fortress walls.	One of the survived gates of the town walls.