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History of Barberino Val d'Elsa - Tuscany Italy

Archaeological evidence found at San Martino ai Colli, Barberino, Sant’Appiano and Petrognano and dating from the Etruscan period through the centuries of the Roman Empire indicate the antiquity of settlement in the area. Later, feudal society was responsible for the construction of the Barberino zone’s many castles. Semifonte, near Petrognano, has an especially interesting history. The Alberti family built the castle during the 12th-century restoration of imperial power. Semifonte experienced rapid and promising development until Florence decreed its destruction in 1202. As a result, construction of the Chapel of Saint Michael Archangel, dedicated to Semifonte, was interrupted until the end of the 16th century.

Destruction of the short-lived Semifonte increased the importance of Barberino, which also benefited from a favorable geographical position. When, around the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century, the rural area surrounding Florence was organized into leagues, Barberino became the administrative center of a league bearing its name. Thirty popoli (communities) between the Elsa and Pesa valleys belonged to the organization. Barberino was laid out on an ellipsoid plan popular in the Middle Ages. Parts of the fortifications are still visible along the Highway of the King of Rome. Within the walls, in a setting that still preserves much of its ancient appearance despite the insertion of the modern parochial church in neo-Gothic style, stands

Palazzo Barberini, once the home of Pope Urban VIII’s family. Among the other castles in the Barberino territory mention should be made of Linari, with ruins of medieval structures, the Church of Santo Stefano, Vico d’Elsa, which has lost its fortifications but not the characteristics of a medieval rural village, and Tignano, where most of its circuit of walls and a gate flanked by an imposing castle are still intact.

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