Rondò Montevettolini

Montevettolini

At the north western foot of Montalbano the borough of Montevettolini rises, at 187 Mts. above sea-level. It was founded on the top of the hill around the 12th century. The Montevettolini castle became a free “Comune” in the 13th century and it surrendered to “Uguccione della Faggiola” in 1315. It was ruled by Lucca till the death of Castruccio Castracani. In 1328 it joined the “Lega della Valdinievole” (League of Valdinievole) against Florence to which, however, it had to submit a short time later. The Medicis chose Montevettolini as their rest place for hunting and at the end of the 16th century Ferdinando I entrusted Gherardo Mechini and Domenico Marcacci to build the imposing villa, today known as Borghese, at the western end of the surrounding walls. In 1775 Pietro Leopoldo built the unified administration of the “Comunità delle due terre” (Community of the two territories). It was made up of Montevettolini's territories, belonging to the already decaying castle of Monsummano Terme, the continuously spreading administrative centre. Ruins of the surronding walls and of one of the six castle defence towers, the so-called “Torre dello Sprone” or “Torre delle Murina”, can be seen to the West of the builtup area. The entrance to the village consisted of three following gates: the so-called “Porta del Montaletto”, destroyed in 1830, “Porta del Cantone” which was incorporated into the Medicean villa, and the “Porta del Vicino” or “del Malvicino”, later called “Porta dei Barbacci”, the only one which is still undamaged. In the borough there were the oratory of San Francesco to the West of the church, and that of Corpus Domini built in Bargellini's square, which today is the seat of the local Music Society and of the “Comitato del Santissimo Crocifisso”. The thirteenth-century Town Hall still shows the podestas' coats of arms hanging on the facade, and it incorporates an ancient guard tower to the right. A medieval tower was used as a church belfry as well, which was built in the 15th century in the place of the older one, which had been incorporated inside the ecclesiastic building. A chapel dedicated to San Michele, belonging to “San Giovanni Battista” and “San Lorenzo a Vaiano” ‘s parish church, had risen in the place of the church since the 12th century. It was enlarged over the centuries, then it was raised to parish after the suppression of the parish of Vaiano in 1449, when it was dedicated to San Lorenzo, too. The present aspect of the building is due to Vittorio Anastagi's eighteenth-century restructuring: the interior contains the polycrome marble high altar by “Bartolomeo Moisè da Seravezza”, the stucco decorations and the frescos signed by Felice Balsan in 1740.There are also valuable paintings by Florentine masters: a Madonna with Child and Saints from the school of “Raffaellino del Garbo”, a Madonna with Child and Saints by Piero di Cosimo, the Out Lady of the Assumption and Saints signed by Santi di Tito on the high altar, the seventeenth-century canvases showing Sant'Antonio, San Sebastiano, San Rocco, a Out Lady of the Assumption ascribed to Jacopo Chimenti known as “l'Empoli” and a Virgin Mary in Glory with Child ascribable to Francesco Curradi. Finally, there is a remarkable big polychrome wooden Crucifix, that may be dated back from the 14th to the 15th century. The oratory of the “Madonna della Neve” (Madonna of the Snow) rises to the Est of the village. It contains the fifteenth-century fresco showing the Madonna with Child and Saints. The medicea villa of Montevettolini is situated on the northern extremity of the hill not much distant from the Pieve of S. Michele Arcangelo, the parsonage and the municipality public square.. The villa was commissioned by Granduca Ferdinando I and its realisation was supervised by Gherardo Mechini, who was designated in May of that same year " Architect of His Royal Highness " and former capomaestro in service of the Granducato since 1581; it was realised between the end of the 6th century and the first twenty years of the 7th century. In the successive period the building didn' t undergo any modifications in its total aspect and maintained its own characters, introducing an imposing and severe appearance, which gave it the aspect of a fortress; it has a white parget with simple stone angolatures and the doors and windows profiles are made with serene-stone, polished and ' bugnato ' ashlers. It was constructed incorporating some pre-existing structures of the defensive system of the village. In fact the Rocca and one of the six towers of the city walls, the Cantone door tower, were annexed to the new construction. These structures were in great part dismantled and part of the material was re-used to realise the new building. The rocca and the tower were joined by a two-storey construction, plus the ground floor; the first one is completely occupied by an immense hall of representation. The left side of the building, the one in which has been incorporated the tower, is one-floor higher because situated on a rise of the land; on this side, right under the roof gutter, small windows and openings similar to jails are altered. Along all the perimeter of the palace, at the top floor, there is a rather-regular succession of square windows with stone extensions and small loop-holes below, the same linear rhythm is repeated for the greatest openings of the noble floor, while at the ground floor windows and doors are opened without respecting this scansion. The fortress aspect of the palace is emphasised from four ' watch-positions ' fortified whit loop-holes and jails too.