Suggested Routes
The original wealth of the territory is represented by small centers disseminated in the country that surround Barberino Val d’Elsa.
Click on the places written in red to be able to visualize and to visit the places of art and culture suggested by the Commune of Barberino Val d’Elsa.
VICO D'ELSA
Urban center of medieval origin situated in a strategic position on a small knoll licked up from the Street Francigena and in proximity of the bridge of St. Galgano, that connects the road of Volterra to Florence passing for Semifonte. It preserves the urban structure of walled lune-shaped castle with two central spaces and two parallel streets that were joined in proximity of the two doors, today disappeared.
Chapel Brancadoro-Majnoni-Guicciardini
situated inside Villa Guicciardini, the small chapel is characterized by the harmony of its geometric forms and by the splendid frescos of Giovanni by St. Giovanni.
Chapel of St. Michael
chapel, of ownership of the Guicciardinis, typically Renaissance, with an only aisle deprived of decorative elements of relief. A coat of arms overhangs the front door of entry.
Church of St. Bernard
the Church, a Gothic construction of great architectural interest, is situated in the Torrigiani square of Vico d’Elsa.
Church of Sant'Andrea
the Church goes up again to the century XIV but it has been reconstructed in 1934 and presents a recent raising. Inside there are valuable works of art.
Farm Torrigiani
great farm with annexed a great agrarian firm, situated in the place where the castle of the Florentine Republic was found to defense of the Val d’Elsa.
Villa Guicciardini
the villa, center of the homonym farm, has been restructured during the centuries VIII-XIX; of great interest is the small chapel that Giovanni from St. Giovanni frescos in 1621.
Villa Torrigiani
the villa, built between 1896 and 1899, is set on a high ground that dominates the Val d’Elsa. The building is constituted by an only body of factory surrounded by a park of plants and other.
< TOP >
SEMIFONTE
Today Semifonte doesn't exist anymore, it was razed to the ground from the fellow citizens of Dante, the Florentines, in 1202.
It had four doors and a central construction with octagonal tower.
The dome of St. Donnino, the only present building today in that place, was built after four centuries in memory of that tragic events.
< TOP >
PONETA - PASTINE - POPPIANO
On a hillock crossed from the road that, detaching from the Francigena brings toward Barberino Val d’Elsa, there is the small rural suburb of Poneta.
The Church of Saint Maria in Poneta is very ancient and important.
St. Martin in Pastine is a small and attractive Church that goes up again to the XII century; the structure is substantially entire in the native Romanesque plant.
The Castle of Poppiano is set on a hill that faces the medieval towers of St. Gimignano; it is of ancient origin, but completely reconstructed with neomedieval embattled towers.
< TOP >
MARCIALLA
Excellent the landscape position on a lengthened hill that acts as watershed between Val d’Elsa and Val di Pesa. Round arches and buildings in stone with noble openings are unexpected presences. There is also a pentagonal square, that is very interesting.
Marcialla is also particularly famous for the climate, because of the position and the altitude of around 400m on the level of the sea and it allows to admire beautiful panoramas in all the directions.
Church of St. Lawrence to Vigliano
it presents elements of the X-XII century and has a plant with an only aisle with apse. It has been widened and restored in 1928.
Church of Saint Maria
the original structure of the building goes up again to the century XII, even if during 1500 some remaking have been realized. Inside you can admire interesting sixteenth-century paintings.
Building Giannozzi
the building, with characteristics of urban villa, presents an eighteenth-century façade with Spanish recalls and a beautiful Gothic room with arch bricks.
Villa St. Lawrence
the villa was in origin a convent called San Lorenzo a Vigliano. We have found information of the villa in some documents of the century XIII and XIV.
In the gardens there is a small chapel.
< TOP >
PETROGNANO
The suburb of Petrognano is stretched on the green hills planted with vines around the road that brings to Certaldo from Barberino. It’s a group of old shed houses, placed in confusion around Villa Caponi; houses of cities with medieval towers, lost in the country. This because Petrognano is not anything else other than the suburb of a disappeared city: Semifonte.
Suburb of Petrognano
the small installation consists of a cluster of houses placed along the road, a lot of which with towered elements (referable to the centuries XIII-XIV) and of a castle.
Chapel of St. Pietro
originally small Church, the chapel preserves some paintings, currently moved near the Church of St. Donnino in the Commune of Certaldo.
House-Tower Montigliano-SS. Annunziata
house-tower in rural architecture with important structures referable to the centuries XII-XV. It has been widened more times during the centuries.
House-Tower Morello
house-tower with out-buildings of the century XIII, traditionally attributed to the perimeter of Semifonte.
Archaeological rests to Petrognano
they have been recovered among the '67 and the '68 following the excavations of the Archaeological Superintendence in Florence and they are above all recoveries of the etrusco-Hellenistic and Roman-imperial period.
< TOP >
SANT'APPIANO
The monumental complex of Sant'Appiano is situated on a pleasant knoll, it’s surrounded by severe cypresses and it is composed by the romanesque Parish, by the ruins of a demolished octagonal building, by the cloister, by the canon and by a group of houses slightly far, constituent the village. The beauty of the landscape is accompanied by the sacredness of the place: here, infact, are preserved the mortal remains of the Saint that has given the name to the place.
Etruscan graves
recovered near the Parish, they are finds of an only complex of the VIII century A.C.
Parish of Sant'Appiano
Parish of suggestive beauty, already remembered in a 990 document, it preserves rests of a structure belonging to the romantic age as the part in stone of the left aisle, the apse and the crypt.
Antiquarium of Sant'Appiano
the complex articulates in two rooms that assemble part of the archaeological material coming from the neighboring zones and come to the light during some campaign of excavation.
< TOP >
LINARI
It’s a delicious strengthened suburb, of very ancient origin and of great charm for its position among the green hills of Val d’Elsa, on a side lane of the Francigena that brings toward Barberino. In the tall part, the ancient fortress, there is the little Church of Saint Maria, that has a romanesque plant with a beautiful eighteenth-century bell tower.
The castle is organized around a paved central street that went from door to door.
Church of Saint Stephen Linari
the small Church, as other rural churches of the territory, it is built in bricks with Gothic elements. In neogothic style is also the bell tower with square plant.
< TOP >
SAN FILIPPO - PONZANO
The rural center of St. Phillip extends on a hill with following agglomerations of great landscape suggestion. The central agglomeration, the one that more adds urban elements, it is crossed from a paved road, that finishes in correspondence of the Church of St. Phillip in Ponzano. It deals with a Romanesque Church of the XII-XIII century, with rectangular plant with apse.
< TOP >
SAN MARTINO AI COLLI
San Martino ai colli is a group of ancient houses situated along the state road Cassia; they are agricultural houses, but also exercises of service in the road, to the wayfarers and also to the pilgrims direct to Rome.
Today there is the Chapel of the cemetery that acts as place of cult.
Chapel of San Martino ai colli
situated inside the cemetery of St. Martin, the chapel has purchased importance following the recovery, under of it, of two Etruscan graves of the VIII-VII century A.C.
Necropolis of San Martino ai colli
recovered in 1907, it has room graves and finds, datable from the end of the century VI till the Roman age.
< TOP >
TIGNANO
On an isolated knoll (334m) opposite to Barberino, with a vast view on the Val d’Elsa and on the narrow valley of the Drove, places the picturesque castle of Tignano. It’s perhaps the most beautiful example of walled center of the Val d’Elsa.
It’s very original its circular structure with central square. You can enter in the castle through a steep ramp that conducts to the Florentine Door that is defended by a stumpy square massive structure, the quarter-deck.
House-tower Tignano Alto
this house-tower was originally inserted in the circuit of the boundaries of the suburb.
Church of St. Romolo
the building, in origin in Romanesque style with rectangular plant, has been modified in the beginning of the '900 by remarkable restructurings.
Oratory of Sant'Anna
oratory of the sixteenth-century placed inside the castle of Tignano. The inside, with rectangular plant, presents a wooden truss ceiling.
Tabernacle of Tignano
the tabernacle is set on the road that goes down from Tignano to Uliveto and built as a niche in the rise of the wall; as regards the landscape it is well inserted in the environment that surrounds it.
< TOP >
CORTINE
Surrounded by a country that still presents examples of traditional cultivation, we find this minuscule center, constituted by a cluster of houses built with stones, by a church and by a palace. The splendid house-tower of Chito is placed in a strategic position on the contended borders between Florence and Siena and it’s a beautiful example of medieval architecture for defensive purpose.
Villa Cortine
built in post-Renaissance style, the villa has been recently restructured and it is currently residence of privacies.
Castle of Cortine
it has been already remembered in 1038 because here has been found a document concerning a donation in favour of the Abbey of San Salvatore all’Isola.
< TOP >
OLENA - SAN GIORGIO
The small center of Olena is placed in the borders of the great woods of the Chianti, a haggard group of houses with the Church of a rural dimension in the middle, in an ancient atmosphere, but of great landscape suggestion. The surrounding country appears particularly beautiful for the presence of the woods and the cultivated hills with specialized vineyard.
St. George is instead an ancient isolated building, born for giving assistance to the pilgrims and the poor wayfarers.
< TOP >
MONSANTO - LA PANERETTA
Monsanto is situated on the ridge among the stream Drove and the suburb Cepperello, in a panoramic position. Earth of frontier between Siena and Florence, is surrounded by woods, among which there are one famous because it’s entirely of cypresses.
Palace Pino
the villa, with high-class architecture, presents structural elements referable to the century XVII-XIX.
Castle of the Paneretta
ancient small fortress, born in the century XV by the amplification of a medieval tower. The square structure, the quarter-deck and the three angular towers still belong to the native construction.
< TOP >
