08 August 2010

Villa Chigi Saracini has been built up on the initiative of Count Galgano Saracini who wanted a great decorum house for his family, with a large park to make the most of it. Building the new complex produced a radical alteration of the main urban order, since a big part of castle-walls was been pulled down. The complex (villa-chapel-park) has been carried out between 1820 and 1840 and is partly attributed to Agostino Fantasici. The way the park now looks like is due to Count Guido Saracini, great music lover and founder of Chigiana Music Accademy.

Saint Gusmè derives from Saint Cosma, of which the church's secret namesake is recorded since 867. In 1201 it was a non fortifi ed village of modest dimensions, around which the abbey of Barardenga had notably developed its' property. In 1370, following the raids of the mercenary groups, the inhabitants decided, with the help of Siena, to fortify the village with a wall around the outside. Between 1477 and 1479, it was once again fortified. Saint Gusmè, situated in the south-oriental area of higher Chianti, represents still to this day an example of a fortified village, of large circular form, delimited by an external wall still partly existing. This wall, of which the layout is clearly defi ned in a fl oor plan of the end of sixteenth century, conserves some features, with rectangular banks, a good part immersed into buildings which are leant against them. They have conserved the two gateways, even though slightly reshaped, which gave access to the castle. The Siena (Senese) gateway is surmounted by a rectangular plaque in marble with the shield of Siena between two leaves. In 1939 a third gateway was discovered, Porta Nuova (new gateway), which opens at the side of the churches of Saints Cosma and Damiano. The churches of the Saints Cosma and Damiano and of the SS. Annunziata are situated inside the village.