Rondine Castle
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Between the bushes rises the keep. |
On the left of the keep there's the rests of the walled
enclosure. |
Rondine Castle rises in the council of Arezzo, a few kilometers from
the town of Castiglion Fibocchi. From the Arezzo it's reachable following the
indications for this last named country. The road that brings under the rests
of the castle is signaled by a normal road poster without indication of the
presence of the ruins.
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The keep's main gate. |
In the Middle Age the castle of Rondine was one of the most powerful fortifications
of this area, under the domination of Arezzo, between the Valdarno and the Casentino,
due to its strategic position that made the castle able to control the course
of the underlying river Arno.
Today it lies ruined and abandoned, invaded so much by the vegetation to make
its identification almost impossible. It rises at the center of a private ownership
and it is fenced because is dangerous to penetrate between the ruins for the
possible fall of stones. Only the mighty keep come out from the green and it
is also almost intact, between the bushes it's possible to notice the rests
of the walled enclosure.
The castle construction started in the 12-13th centuries and was performed
by the commune of Arezzo. In 1287 Rondine was conquered by the Guelphs escaped
from Arezzo and became their stronghold until to 1323, when the Bishop Guido
Tarlati pull it under siege and recovered its control. Few years after, in 1338,
the castle, as Arezzo and its whole district, passed under the domination of
the Florentine Republic and come no more interested in remarkable historical
facts, so much to be soon abandoned and left go in slowly downfall until our
days.
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