Poppi

Anyone who comes to explore the Casentino region from Florence cannot skip the town of Poppi. Poppi is located about 65 km southeast of Florence and the road to it passes vast green fields along the river Arno and through rolling hills covered with the vineyards of Nipozzano and Frescobaldo.

 

Halfway you pass through Consuma, also known as the mountain pass Il Passo della Consuma at an altitude of 1050m. Here you have a beautiful view of the entire valley and you can immediately take the opportunity to taste the tastiest focaccia from this region. 

 

After Consuma you are finally in the Casentino region. Just before Poppi you cross the valley where the bloody battle of Campaldino took place on June 11, 1289. When you drive through this silent plain, it is hard to imagine that exactly here the troops from Florence, Pistoia, Lucca and Prato and the soldiers from Arezzo fought each other.

 

As the old town with the famous castle sits on top of one of the main hills of the area, you can enjoy a wonderful view from here.

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The Castello dei Conti Guidi 

This twelfth-century castle is one of the most beautiful castles in Italy. Unlike the other castles of this region, it has not been destroyed by the ravages of time. Although the first reports of this castle date back to 1191, its architecture suggests that its construction took place two or three centuries earlier.

 

The castle was reportedly built in two different phases. This is a plausible assumption, given the asymmetrical facade of the castle. The design of the oldest part is attributed to Lapo di Cambio, while the most recent part, dating from the end of the 13th century, is said to have been designed by Arnolfo di Cambio. Arnolfo is said to have subsequently used this project for the design of Palazzo Vecchio at Piazza della Signoria in Florence.

 

Poppi, thanks to the strong political position of the Counts Guidi, was given the role of political and administrative capital of the Casentino. The danger of Florentine rule was always around the corner, and when almost all castles had fallen into the hands of the Florentines in the 15th century, Count Francesco Guidi had had enough. He decided in 1440 that it was time to free himself from the domination of Florence. He made an alliance with the Duchy of Milan, which sent troops to support him in the rebellion. But the Florentine army suppressed the rebellion and Florence took the opportunity to exile the Guidi family. Poppi now came under the direct control of Florence.

 

As a Florentine territory, Poppi enjoyed the evolutions of the Renaissance, even though towards the end of the 15th century it was the epicenter of the wars between Florence and Venice.

In the period from 1500 to 1861, the year of the unification of Italy, Poppi remained part of the territory of Florence, first as a Republic, then as Signoria and finally as the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The region developed a thriving agricultural economy with the production of grains, vines and olive trees and the traditional production of organ pipes.

 

A visit to the castle 

Upon arrival you will see a bust of Dante Alighieri. The Poet had a good relationship with Count Guido di Simone da Battifolle, one of the most important figures of the Guidi family. When Dante was banished from Florence, the count offered him shelter for a year in 1310.

 

To access the castle, you cross a small bridge. Be sure to look up before you go inside. You will notice that you are being stared at by a large lion in bas-relief with the mighty tower of 50 meters high above it. 

 

Inside the castle you can visit the old prison and the bell tower, from where you can admire the entire Casentino Valley. Also look at the chapel with the beautiful frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi, a student of Giotto, with images of the Virgin and Saint John. But the most impressive part is without a doubt the Rilliana Library. It was founded in 1828 by Count Rilli Orsini and has more than 25,000 books and 800 manuscripts.

 

Badia di San Fedele 

Just outside the castle on the same hill you will find the old town center of Poppi. You can walk under the long arcades towards the San Fedele Abbey. From the outside it looks austere, but the building, with its bell tower, obtained from one of the towers of the city walls, is a real treasure chest of works of art in Romanesque style. Such as a crucifix, the beautiful 14th-century works of the Madonna con Bambino by the Maestro della Magdalena, paintings by Jacopo Ligozzi and other local artists.

 

The Abbey of San Fedele is the largest Romanesque church in the Casentino, built in 1195 by order of the Counts Guidi together with the monastery, which in 1262 welcomed the Vallombrosani monks from the ancient Abbey of Strumi (10th century), a few kilometers beyond. The Congregation of Vallombrosana ruled Poppi Abbey until 1810, the year in which Napoleon expropriated the church of its property and suppressed many monasteries.

 

Madonna del Morbo

This elegant oratorio of the Madonna del Morbo was built between 1657 and 1659 and has a hexagonal plan. It is surrounded on three sides by an elegant portico and covered by a dome.

 

With the construction of the oratorio the people wanted to thank Virgin Mary who had protected the residents of Poppi against two plague epidemics (1530 and 1631). In the rest of the Casentino, thousands of people died from the plague.

 

Prospositura dei Santi Marco e Lorenzo

You can also visit the Propositura dei Santi Marco and Lorenzo. This church was founded in 1284 but was rebuilt and rededicated in 1784. The simple facade with a symmetrical eighteenth-century staircase that follows the slope of the land has a triangular tympanum. The church has a single nave, and the side chapels show late Baroque tabernacles with the beautiful altarpieces by the painter Francesco Morandini known as Il Poppi, as well as the Resurrection of Lazarus, painted by Jacopo Ligozzi (1619).

 

La Torre dei diavoli

While walking through the old center, your attention is drawn by a tower that unexpectedly appears between the houses. It is the so-called Tower of the Devils and is part of the place where the Counts Guidi initially settled before they started building the larger castle.

 

This ruin is called the Tower of the Devils because of a legend: countess Matelda had an older man for a husband who was always traveling. Feeling very lonely, she regularly invited young men to her house. To ensure that there would be no gossip, she then killed these men by throwing them into a pit with sharp knives. This way she knew for sure that they would not tell anyone about their adventure. When the disappearances started to be noticed, the residents and the wives of the missing men entered the castle. They captured Matelda and walled her alive in the top room of the tower.

 

The Battle of Campaldino

On June 11, 1289, in the valley near the castle, the Guelph army, consisting of Florentines, Pistoiesi, Lucchesi and Pratesi, under the command of Amerigo di Nerbona, faced the Ghibelline army from Arezzo and surrounding areas. The battle ended with a great victory for the Guelphs. However, this victory was not decisive for the resolution of the conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, because the victors, instead of moving quickly towards Arezzo, got stuck in the siege of the Casentino castles, giving the Ghibellines time to reorganize.

 

In memory of this historic event, a column was erected in 1921 at the intersection towards Pratovecchio. An inscription on the monument (Inferno XXII, 4-5) reminds us that Dante Alighieri took part in the battle as a knight in the front line. He contributed to the fame of this historical event by mentioning it in the Divine Comedy (Purgatorio, V 85-129). The battle can be viewed in miniature in the museum of Poppi Castle.

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