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CASTIGLIONE D'ORCIA
Located on the top of a hill at 500 metres height, Castiglione
d'Orcia signs the border to the Sienese part of the Amiata. The
original centre of the village, which became an autonomous "comune",
a city-state, around the 17th century, preserves the castle and
the medieval fortress which date back to the first urban settlements
around the 11th century.
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The
village of Castiglione d'Orcia preserves its ancient fascination.
Presumably both Etruscans and Greeks lived here, as the archaeologists
have found tombs and some pieces of ceramics in the neighbourhood.
Remains from the Romans and the Longobards have been found at Castiglione
d'Orcia.
The fortress was incorporated in the village in 1778, and in
the following centuries the resorts of Bagni San Filippo and Campiglia
d'Orcia. A walk around the narrow streets of Castiglione d'Orcia allows
you to enjoy the medieval atmosphere with the perfect architecture
of the village and the marvellous colours of the landscape. Outside
the walls you have to visit the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena, which
the oldest part of the centre goes back to the 12th century. The façade
features a an arch portal and the bell-tower was built with a vault.
The inside with one nave is embellished with a nice circle apse.
The villages which surround Castiglione d'Orcia, are absolutely
enchanting. Campiglia d'Orcia is a village fromt he Late Middle Ages
located between Poggio dello Zoccolino and the Valle d'Orcia. The
first human settlements goes back to 973 a.C and still today represent
the centre of Campiglia d'Orcia. There are four ring streets connected
to each other by small streets. At Campiglia you have to stop at the
Chiesa di San Biagio though it has lost its medieval character after
the restructure in the 19th century. The village of Rocca d'Orcia
expanded around a grey stone rock. There are only some ruins left
of the boundary wall, while the village is almost intact and is located
north of the top of Rocca d'Orcia.
The first centre of Borgo di Vivo dates back to the 11th century,
when the Emperor Arrigo I ordered the construction of a monastery
called San Pietro del Vivo. The monastery decayed until the arrival
of the Cervini family of Montalcino in the 16th century. There are
some precious remains of the ancient hermitage on the top of the hill
where the village is situated. The Cervini family built workshops,
an iron-foundry, some sawmills, a olive-press and a mill, apart from
the aqueduct which supplied the family palace with water from the
river Vivo. Today the old and new parts of the village belong to the
municipality of Castiglione d'Orcia. |
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