Fortezza di Poggio Imperiale - Chianti

Driving on the highway from Florence to Siena and approaching Poggibonsi, one sees an imposing crown of walls at the top. These walls form the outer perimeter of a Medici fortress, built by Lorenzo the Magnificent in the early 1500s. The project was never completed and the small town planned within the fortress was never built. Instead, the pentagonal Cassero was built and it is this recently restored structure that rises above the surrounding Tuscan hills.

The entire top of the Poggio Imperiale hill, which overlooks the town of Poggibonsi, has played an important role in the history of human settlements in central Tuscany.

The whole area is such an important archaeological site that the Department of Archeology of the University of Siena carries out extensive research and high-level training here.

Willem Vandenameele