Die offizielle Tourismus-Website der Gemeinde und Metropole Florenz
Die offizielle Tourismus-Website der Gemeinde und Metropole Florenz
Die offizielle Tourismus-Website der Gemeinde und Metropole Florenz
A ring route which, starting from the village centre, touches the main attractions of the Rignano sull'Arno area.
From the Rignano bridge, ancient crossing on the Arno river, leaving the built-up area and heading north, you find the old San Leolino parish church, dating back to the 11th century and located at the foot of a hill.
Above the parish church lie the ruins of the San Leolino castle, the "Castelluccio", today an archaeological site which has brought to light the traces of the 11th century settlement.
The route continues through the vineyards until it reaches the village of Bombone, where the painter and poet Ardengo Soffici was born and then it proceeds, touching the Santa Maria a Novoli church, towards the panoramic plateau where the San Pietro in Perticaia church stands, also dating back to the 11th century.
The route ends with a stop at the San Cristoforo in Perticaia parish church, with beautiful views over the Valdarno area, and then reaches its final leg: the ancient 12th century Torre all'Isola, thus going back to the starting point.
Comune di Firenze
Also known as Ponte Mediceo or Ponte San Clemente, it is the oldest bridge in the Valdarno area (together with the Ponte a Buriano near Arezzo), maybe already existing in Roman times, connecting the two banks of the Arno river near Rignano.
The bridge has been repeatedly rebuilt and restored over the centuries. In the second half of the 16th century even Bernardo Buontalenti was commissioned by Cosimo I de' Medici to perform restoration work on the structure.
The plaque found on the bridge, recalling the Medici intervention, instead dates back to the end of the 17th century.
Characterized by typical elements of Romanesque architecture that trace its construction between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the parish church of San Leolino has been renovated several times over the centuries. The current sober interior is the result of a restoration, started in 1883, thanks to which the eighteenth-century additions and the frame in-fill wall of the arches were eliminated.
The parish church preserves numerous works: on the right altar is the fragmentary detached fresco of the Madonna della Consolazione by Bicci di Lorenzo of the beginning of the 15th century; the baptismal font in glazed terracotta from the workshop of Santi Buglioni (early 16th century) and the Assumption of the Virgin with Saints Lorenzo and Sixtus II by Marco Confortini.
The archaeological area of Castelluccio occupies a small hill in the relief overlooking the Valdarno area of Rignano.
Given its proven nature as a sealed stratigraphic deposit, the presence of significant elevations and the availability of documentary sources represents a valuable historical and archaeological evidence of the birth, development, abandonment and repopulation of a fortified settlement which, in addition to being a significant nucleus of aggregation since the 11th century, played an important role during the central centuries of the late Middle Ages, as part of the conquests of the countryside made by Florence.
The importance of this castle, in a territory characterized by a scattered population, where the percentage of sites with remains of medieval settlements is very high, is given in particular by its strategic position to control the ford on the Arno and the ancient road network to reach the Florentine plain.
As stated on the plaque outside, it is the building where the painter, poet, writer and essayist Ardengo Soffici was born on April 7 1879, to a family of wealthy farmers. Soffici spent his childhood there, until 1893, when his family moved to Florence.
La chiesa conserva la primitiva struttura romanica con lo schema a semplice aula rettangolare chiusa dall'abside.
Restaurata nel corso degli anni Ottanta del Novecento, il piccolo complesso comprende anche una canonica e i resti di un piccolo chiostro rinascimentale.
La chiesa ospita un bel trittico attribuito al Maestro dell'Incoronazione Christ Church (fine secolo XIV), proveniente dalla vicina chiesa di Torri e un Crocifisso ligneo di pregevole fattura di scuola fiorentina (fine XV secolo - inizi XVI secolo).
Ancient church, already mentioned in the 11th century, whose current appearance dates back to the 18th century, when the building was completeley modernised according to the style of the time.
