Fucecchio A castle along the via Francigena

FUCECCHIO A CASTLE ALONG THE VIA FRANCIGENA

A castle along the via Francigena.
The history of Fucecchio is closely related to the Via Francigena, which crossed the nearby river Arno and continued on to Valdelsa and to the Medici family, whose administrative headquarters were established here during the Renaissance. The Castle and Church of San Salvatore, were built by Conti Cadolingi di Pistoia in the 10th Century and still dominate the town of Poggio Salamartano today, together with the Collegiata di San Giovanni Battista, which was re-built in the neo-classical style in the 1800s. The remains of the medieval castle are today part of Parco Corsini, where the library and Civic Museum are also located which document the history of Fucecchio through numerous archeological findings and a gallery of paintings from local churches which thanks to the ornithological collection remind us of the nearby The Fucecchio Marsh. During the Renaissance period, Cosimo I de’ Medici ordered the Ponte a Cappiano to be built accross the marshland, the largest internal marsh area in Italy to regulate the flow of the Usciana canal and it became the true administrative headquarters of the Medici farms in the area. Today the marshland is home to numerous animal species and today can be visited on foot or by bike along the various trails which like the nearby the Woods of Cerbaie, offer stunning views of the Tuscan countryside. Fucecchio also has links with the famous Italian journalist Indro Montanelli who, despite having lived and worked mainly in Rome and Milan, maintained a close relationship with his place of birth and requested that his studies were transferred here to the Montanelli Bassi Foundation, dedicated to this important 20th Century writer.