Via Machiavelli, 26
50026
San Casciano Val di Pesa
The land The land of the commune of San Casciano in Val di Pesa extends just to the Southern side of Firenze and it is surrounded by the close communes of Scandicci and Impruneta to the Northern side, Greve in Chianti to the East, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa to the South and eventually with the land of the commune of Montespertoli to the West on the promontories that divide the Pesa valley from the Greve valley and at a maximum altitude of 400 mt above sea level it is almost entirely included in the Classico Chianti area, except for the area that lays on the left shore of Pesa river.
The vineyards of that area grow in a land pravailingly of a galestro species.
In ancient times it was called San Casciano in Decimo because it lays at the 10th milestone of the roman road.
Even that town was born because of the power of the "Lylith" town: Firenze.
Henry the 7th stopped there in the month of december 1312.
In 1326 San Casciano had to suffer several incursions by Castruccio Castracani who burnt its centre.
Gualtieri from Brienne, the Duchy of Athens and the Lord of Firenze started to fortify it in 1343.
Even San Casciano like Empoli and like many Tuscan towns was considered as a strategic point by Florentine people for their defense, as a matter of fact in 1355
a quarterdeck was built up there and it was provided with thick walls and towers.
The history
The toponyme Decimo that is still linked to the parish church of Saint Cecilia, by San Casciano, represents the memory of a milestone (decimum lapidem) of an important roman road, maybe the one that had to join the colony of ancient Florentia with Sena Julia's. Archaeological findings and toponymy stratification state the ancientness of the settlement whose density seem to find its confirmation in the presence of just 4 parish churches on the same land (San Pancrazio, Sugana and Campoli besides of Decimo) and of an high number of churches that depended on those latter, linked to several "people".
That dense humanization that nowadays features the landscape of the countrysides around San Casciano, was certainly active still in the Middle Age, formerly leant on the several castles that are recorded as feudalized by the Florentine episcopate or by the powerful aristocratical association, such as the Buondelmontis and the Cavalcantis, and who appear nowadays transformed in villas-farms (Bibbione, Castelvecchio, Fabbrica, Lilliano, Monteridolfi, Montepaldi, Pergolato and many more) or declassed to rural houses (Argiano, Castelbonsi, Montauto, Monteclavi, Montecampolesi, Montefolchi, etc).
The growing agricultural productivity linked to the affirmation of the métayage that underlined the diffusion of the spread settlement and the formation of exchange centres such as Mercatale and the same Castle of San Casciano “a Decimo” that got the features of wide "terra murata" ("walled land"), provided with strong defenses soon after the half of 14th century, largely witnessed still nowadays.
San Casciano still preserves signs of its past in its 1300 dated walls, with some towers and one of the doors care off which lays the church of Saint Maria al Prato enriched with 1500 additions and several artworks, among them there is a cross made by Simone Martini: even the other churches (Collegiata, Santa Maria del Gesù, San Francesco) are famous for their artworks than for their architectural values.
In the countryside the parish churches that were formerly remembered preserve important structures: they are even early romanic in San Pancrazio, of the full romanic maturity in Campoli and in Decimo, even though underneath baroque decorations, late-romanic in Sugana there where is even a rare holy water stoup dated of the 12th century.
Other churches still show their interest from an architectural point of view, such as the romanic small church of Saint Andrea in Luiano or the gothic churches in Saint Maria in Bibbione that belonged to an Agostinian convent, or Saint Angelo a Vico l'abate, where there is a table by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
From the other noteworthy churches even Saint Maria in Argiano, San Martino in Argiano, Saint Maria in Monte Macerata,Saint Pietro in MOntepaldi have to be quoted: among the several villas that share the countryside of San Casciano just at the first suburbs of Firenze the ones of Guicciardinis, the Tattolis, the Courts, the Borromeo and Casarotta must be mentioned.
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