San Sano is a village in the heart
of the historical part of the Chianti region in Tuscany.
It dominates a vast valley from where you can catch
sight of Vagliagli. You can see San Sano from the historical
castle of Lecchi. This castle is situated on a hill,
which is better defensible than San Sano even if it
is colder and less hospitable. San Sano is just like
its land: rough and strong, stony, bright and even promoting
a sense of calm. It is green, yet at the same time seems
bare.
San Sano stands where in the 11th
century Guarnellotto dei Mazzalombardi, a local gentleman
of German aristocracy, had built his castle in the middle
of his vast lands.
Loyal Ghibelline and therefore allied
of the city of Siena, he paid with his life, beaten
back to the Sienese walls by the Florentines as they
took his small fiefdom.
San Sano then became the centre of
a fragile boundary between the powerful city of Florence
and the proud city of Siena, sharing in the course of
the many wars and delicate armistices, which existed
between the two areas.
After the defeat of Colle, a town
north of Siena, (1269) the middle class, called the
Noves, ascended to power and stabilized the quarrelsome
Sienese Republic and then Tuscany with the Guelph League
agreement.
The Noves are people from the middle
class: merchants, craftsmen, and intellectuals, who
were enriched by the recovery of the trade market and
who then ousted the aristocracy at the head of Siena.
The Noves ruled for about 90 years from 1268 to 1355.
Most of the monuments and the pieces of art that have
helped Siena become unique were projected and realized
in this period. The castle of Tornano and the castle
of Guarnellotto become the stable seat for the Novesco
army. From here the peace with Florence was controlled.
The Noveschi castle will enrich this part of the Chianti
region defending it, favouring the development and the
peace of those who live there.
In the 16th century the truce between
Siena and Florence ended. The two cities became involved
in the war between Spain and France, and then started
a terrible dispute that lead to the end of the Sienese
Republic. Both the Guarnelotto and the Noveschi castles
were completely destroyed. There are a few remains of
these castles, which today are stuck in the village
of San Sano, built on the ruins.
They fit in with the farmer and merchant's
houses that already adorned the primitive castle, giving
it the shape of a small conglomerate. The village of
San Sano is an extraordinary example of splendid “poor”
architecture. The geographical position allowed the
village a quick recovery.
In the 17th century the development
of commerce, in particular the wine market, favoured
wealth and prestige while the farmland flourished with
sharecropping and diversified crops. A peaceful impulse
took place with the Grand duke Pietro Leopoldo whose
wonderful description has survived: “ Chianti
is full of small land owners; it is not rich but yet
not poor. Everybody lives thanks to crops and the production
of wheat, wine and silk. The best places for wine are
around Brolio and Ama where the farmers are all well
kept and in good shape; and the most beautiful hills
and valleys of the Chianti are around Ama's castle.”
Pietro Leopoldo, with his reforms
gave another input to a land that was about to become
one of the most beautiful, rich and hospitable regions
in Italy..or even the world.... a land universally known
and admired. San Sano is right in the middle of this
land and “Castellare de' Noveschi” welcomes
at first glance whoever gets close to it. History, art,
architecture, gastronomy and peace is what you will
find at “Castellare de' Noveschi”.
#top
