by Felicia Rotundo

The Chianti area

Chianti is a vast area predominantly given over to viticulture that extends between the provinces of Siena and Florence. In the province of Siena it corresponds to the councils of

Radda in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti and Castelnuovo Berardenga, that were reunited in a podesteria dependant on and administered by Florence.

The territory of Chianti is characterized by the ample tracts of land cultivated with vines. This had a determining effect on the economy of the area based on the production of the vino Chianti that is exported all over the world. The territory is also rich in olive groves and woods.

The settlements

Since mediaeval times, Chianti developed dispersed settlements, small nuclei of houses and villages situated near castles and fortified towers that could ensure the defence of these small rural communities.

The architectural heritage, in addition to castles and defensive towers, consists of ville-fatorie, pieve, and churches that form a complex system of distribution and organization of the territory based (as is the case in the rest of Tuscany), on the mezzadria (share-cropping) that survived until the mid 1900s. This was administered by noble Florentine families but also ecclesiastical organizations such as the Ospedali di Santa Maria Nuova and the Innocenti hospitals that were significant landowners in the region.

Notable examples of these are the castles of Brollo and Cacchiano that both belonged to the noble Ricasoli Firidolfi family and the pievi of San Giusto in Salcio, Spaltenna and San Polo in Rosso.

The Countryside

In Chianti not only the villas, castles and pievi, but also the rural architecture with the farmers houses distinguishable by their typical loggiate and their torri colombaie (dove towers), confer upon the landscape a particular character and an exceptional aesthetic value.

The landscape still remains a cherished element of the territory and one that has remained uncontaminated; new constructions and agricultural methods have been minimized in order to retain the essential character of the landscape: the roads have kept their white and dusty surfaces and the sinuous way that they wind along, reflecting the natural topography of the terrain.