The first certain news of the existence of a settlement in Arcidosso dates back to the year 860 and reports it as a possession of the Abbey of SS. Savior. The construction of the first nucleus of the castle, around which the town will develop, can be dated around the year one thousand. From the 12th to the 14th century it was a fief of the Aldobrandeschi counts and became an important military stronghold, an extreme bulwark against the penetration of Siena into the Amiatino territory. The current appearance of the fortress is the result of several extensions undergone by the original Lombard construction of the 11th century; it consists of an imposing building with two buildings (one of which is lower), with a quadrangular section that rests, for most of the perimeter, on imposing shoe bases; the external walls are lined with filaretto.
The origin of the Vignoni castle dates back to the 11th century, as a possession of the Abbey of S.Antimo In the current fortified village you can still see a tower, now severed, with a strong and wide scarp and surmounted by a redondone and some small windows. This was the keep, the heart of the fort. Even one of the ancient access gates to the walled enclosure is still perfectly intact, next to the church of San Biagio. Outside the door the view of the Valdorcia is breathtaking, on the left stands the bell tower of the church and on the right the best preserved part of the walls, with the corner tower, built with the same characteristics as the keep.
The remains of what was once the mighty Rocca Aldobrandesca dominate the medieval village of Castiglione d’Orcia. The fortress stands at the highest point of the 574-meter high to which the town is built, whose walls, in large tracts still visible despite the fact that numerous houses have sprung up against it, once connected. The construction of the Rocca was due to the feudal family of the Aldobrandeschi of Santa Fiora, one of the most powerful in southern Tuscany, around the 10th century. The fort controlled the ancient road that from Mount Amiata leads into the Val d’Orcia through which the main communication routes to and from the Maremma passed.
A first glance is enough to understand the reasons that led to the construction of the Rocca di Tentennano or Tintinnano: from the large limestone rock on the edge of the Val d’Orcia that hosts it, it was possible to check the path of the Via Francigena below and access to the Gorges of the Orcia through which the ways of communication passed towards and from the Maremma, being able to count on a virtually impregnable position. The first information attesting to the existence of a settlement called Tintinnano dates back to the year 853. The fortification developed mainly during the years 1250-58, when it came into the possession of the Municipality of Siena.
Since the 11th century the area of southern Tuscany around the Piancastagnaio castle was the subject of the expansionist policy of the powerful Aldobrandeschi family and the whole territory is rich in historical evidence related to their potentate. Built on the slopes of Monte Amiata, the town has a circular shape, once enclosed by a fortified city wall interspersed with square towers and four doors. The walls have been almost completely demolished, today three towers remain visible, two semicircular and one square, the main door next to the fortress and three other, very simple, in the southern part of the walls Porta Romana, Porticciola and Porta di Voltaia. The mighty Rocca Aldobrandesca still stands at the highest point of the town.
The fortress of Roccalbegna crowns a rock, simply called ’stone’, which overlooks the homonymous village from a height of sixty meters. The town lies on the southern flank of Mount Labbro at the confluence of the Armancione and Albegna rivers, which has always been a fundamental strategic point for controlling the road that crosses the area of Monte Amiata, which at this point narrows. Just go up to the top of the ’stone’, and look out from the ramparts of the medieval fortification to have an exceptional panoramic view over the whole valley.
Rocca Silvana, also called Rocca Selvena or Roccaccia Selvena, today reduced to suggestive and still imposing ruins, was in the Middle Ages the most important palace-fortress in the area of Mount Amiata, being one of the main strongholds, almost certainly the richest, of the most powerful feudal dynasty of the time: the Aldobrandeschi. Its wealth was due to the nearby deposits of cinnabar and mercury exploited since before the year 1000 and its position at the top of a rocky hill, almost six hundred meters high, with three sides overhanging the valley of the Fiora river which it gave him almost impregnability.
The ruins of the castle of Sassoforte rise on the top of the massif of the same name at more than 700 meters above sea level, immersed in a splendid forest landscape marked by beech and chestnut. This is certainly one of the most monumental architectural testimonies of Tuscany, of which the imposing external walls, the refined noble residence and the well-stocked formwork, located at the highest point of the hill, are clearly visible.
The castle of the Rocchette di Fazio rises in the valley of the Albegna river. In the Middle Ages, the whole valley, especially the hills that were the watershed with the adjacent Fiora valley, was feuded by the Aldobrandeschi counts and consequently all the castles in the area passed under their control and were rebuilt or reinforced starting from the twelfth century. The origin of this castle is due to Count Bonifazio, called Fazio, of the Aldobrandeschi, future father of that Ildebrandino who in 1272 became the head of the branch of S.Fiora of the powerful family.
The castle, or rather walled village, of Monticchiello, already a fief of the local Lambardi family, was massively fortified by the Sienese towards the end of the thirteenth century, when it became an important frontier stronghold. Monticchiello was the cornerstone of the defensive organization located on the eastern border of the Sienese countryside and for this reason over the centuries it was at the center of numerous war events such as assaults, destruction and occupations.
The mighty Rocca di Radicofani has stood for more than a thousand years, was named for the first time in 973, from the top of an imposing 896-meter basaltic cliff, from which it dominates the whole territory between Monte Cetona, the Val d’Orcia and Mount Amiata. At his feet passed an ancient passage of the Via Cassia, then Francigena or Romea, and it was undoubtedly this that determined his birth and his history, which has always been inextricably linked to this road.
The Castello del Potentino is located outside Seggiano. The castle was built around the year 1000 as an ancient possession of the bishops of Chiusi, whose diocese at the time extended to the whole area of Mount Amiata. In the eleventh century there is the attestation that belonged to the Visconti di Campiglia. In the thirteenth century it passed under Sienese control and belonged to the Bonsignori, Tolomei, Salimbeni and Bindi families.
The castle is undoubtedly the best known monument of the municipality of Roccastrada if not of the Upper Maremma, for its importance as a historical document (it is depicted in the famous fresco ’Guidoriccio da Fogliano at the siege of Montemassi’ of the public palace of Siena attributed to Simone Martini) and for the high example of Gothic architecture it represents.
