City of hills, villas, villages, enclosed to the south-west by a crown of knolls preserved in their natural beauty. Forests and pine-woods, a great public park in Poggio Valicaia.
Villages surely worth a visit, such as Mosciano, former Mussianum -since Latin Gens Mussia-, as Giogoli, San Vincenzo a Torri, Casignano, San Martino alla Palma, having churches of great cultural and artistic interest.
In Mosciano there is Sant'Andrea's church, dedicated in 1060, subsequently revised and restored around 1930; in San Martino alla Palma the eponymous church, remembered since the X century, founded by Cadolingi family, with a XV century porch and a modern campanile; in Casignano San Zanobi, perhaps dated back to the IV century.
Still, Sant'Alessandro a Giogoli (see image) dated back to the X century with some Ghirlandaio frescoes. The crypt, nave, aisles and campanile are Longobard style. A 1187 memorial stone remembers the privileges Gregory VIII granted to the church.
XVI century villas, as Collazzi (perhaps a Michelangelo's work), Antinori, originally a Cadolingi fortress, where in 1935 took place a meeting between Mussolini and the Austrian Chancellor Schushnigg, Lami, Diluvio. Villa Mirenda, also named the Arcipresso, where D. H. Lawrence stayed and started to write his Lady Chatterley's Lover.
Tuscan landscape typical cottages and farms, signs of a still well-rooted culture, unforgettably marking the presence of a strong popular and rural class, as well as of ancient Florence families - Bardi, Pulci, Torrigiani - who had large properties here.
Badia a Settimo parish church jewel, founded about in 1000 by earl Lotario, from the Cadolingi family, and assigned in 1004 to the Cluny French monks. In 1048 Guglielmo Bulgaro, Lotario's son, called San Giovanni Gualberto to reform it; in 1236 Gregorio IX gave Badia to Cistercians, who kept it till 1782. In 1370 the buildings were surrounded by walls, of which some remainders are still visible. In 1944 Nazis, while retreating, destroyed the campanile, loyally restored in 1951, and other buildings. The great building is formed by the monastery and the romanic church with Melaranci cloister, a Brunelleschi work. Later in time great artists as the Della Robbia and Ghirlandaio enriched the building.
Close by, there is San Giuliano a Settimo church, dated back to 724 with a little later campanile and interior revised in the XVIII century.
City of hills, villas, villages, enclosed to the south-west by a crown of knolls preserved in their natural beauty. Forests and pine-woods, a great public park in Poggio Valicaia.
