Larciano - Larciano

Larciano is a locality of the Tuscany, located in the province of Pistoia.

To know

Geographical notes

The municipality is located in Valdinievole, on the western slopes of Montalbano and on the edge of the Fucecchio Marshes.

Background

The name of Larciano derives from the Latinization of the Etruscan name Larthial, possessive genitive of the masculine noun Larth. The toponym in 941 is documented as Arsianus, with the passage of time it has passed to the current name.

The history of Larciano revolves around that of the current Larciano Castello.

From the mid-10th century Larciano has been known to us as the lordship of the Guidi counts for a donation that Ranieri and Guido, sons of Count Tegrimo, made to the cathedral and to the bishop of Pistoia. The Larciano Castle was later confirmed to the Guidi by Arrigo VI and Federico II.

In 1225 Larciano with Cecina, Casi and Collecchio was sold by the sons of Count Guido Guerra of Modigliana to the Municipality of Pistoia for 6,000 lire. Due to its position Larciano became one of the cornerstones of the defensive system of Pistoia in the "monti di sotto"; this was in fact called the western side of Montalbano, a reason that prompted the city to strengthen the walls and other defense works. In 1302, during the war that saw the Ghibelline Pistoia against the Guelphs Florence and Lucca, Larciano was conquered immediately after the surrender of Serravalle. However in 1310 the town was recovered together with other territories lost by Pistoia, upon the payment of 10,000 gold florins. Towards 1391 the castle became a solid base organized by Pistoia and Florence, united by the danger of an offensive in Tuscany by Gian Galeazzo Visconti.

When in 1401 it submitted to Florence with all its countryside, Larciano became the seat of one of the four podesterie in which the Pistoia territory was organized. Among the podestà, the most famous is Francesco Ferrucci. Subsequently, in the institutional framework of the Medici state, we find Larciano and Serravalle united in a single podestà. In 1772 the latter became the only seat of the Podesta office, while in 1774 a community including Larciano and Lamporecchio was born.

It was only on 1 July 1897 that Larciano, obtaining the separation from this locality, became an autonomous municipality, consisting of the hamlets of Biagiotti, Biccimurri, Castelmartini, Cecina, Larciano Castello and San Rocco, which welcomed, and still houses the Town Hall.

How to orient yourself

Fractions

• Castelmartini - Town developed along the Francesca state road characterized by a strong productive component. The original inhabited center, which dates back to the end of the 13th century, is located west of via Francesca which in this section runs north-south; in the same area there was the ancient hospital of S. Donnino in Cerbaia, which has now disappeared and is recorded in the title of the current Parish Church of Castelmartini. Built as a chapel around 1200, it underwent a radical makeover towards the end of the nineteenth century, which gave it an aspect inspired by the late neoclassical. In the building next to the church is the seat of the Center for Research, Documentation and Promotion of the Fucecchio Marshes, whose purpose is to promote initiatives aimed at the conservation and enhancement of the Marshes from an environmental and naturalistic point of view, as a wetland of national and international interest. Proceeding towards the Port of the Morette, a particularly interesting area of ​​access to the Padule, is the Villa Poggi Banchieri, built by expanding and modifying the ancient Castrum Martini that gave the place its name.
• chickpeas flour pie - Medieval village with walls and two access gates, on the slopes of Montalbano, of probable Etruscan origins, perhaps from the surname of the ancient Etruscan noble family of VolterraKaiknas (in Latin Caecina). Inside the walls there is the church of San Nicola of Romanesque origin, of which the external hemicycle of the apse is preserved, has been radically remodeled over the centuries. The interior, with vaulted roof, has a single nave to which the chapel of San Rosario is added on the left, the altar of which is dated 1632. In the second bay, on the left, within a seventeenth-century frame, an expressive wooden crucifix is ​​exhibited. from the end of the fourteenth century, considered miraculous.
• Larciano Castello - It has maintained the urban structure (developed on a sloping ground) of a medieval village and retains the walls of the twelfth century with three access doors. Inside the walls, at the highest point is the fortress, the most important element of which is the high quadrangular tower, from which you can observe a splendid panorama that sweeps from the Valdinievole to the Lower Valdarno. Inside the fortress there is also the civic museum, inaugurated in 1975, in which materials coming essentially from the territory of the Eastern Valdinievole are exhibited, covering a period ranging from prehistory to the late Renaissance. The church of San Silvestro is characterized by a very simple plan with a single nave. Of medieval origin, of which it retains timid traces in the external wall faces, it has undergone radical transformations over the centuries. La Canonica (ex Palazzo Podestarile) is a simple and massive building that overlooks the square to the right of the church. At the center of the square is the column supporting the Marzocco, a reminder of the Florentine domination.
• San Rocco - At the end of the nineteenth century the population that had settled in the church of San Rocco since the seventeenth century had grown considerably; for some time, in fact, Larciano Castello had seen a decrease in the number of its inhabitants who moved to the flat areas, gradually reclaimed, thus freeing them from malaria and making them arable. The church was commissioned by the population in 1631 where there was the small church dedicated to the "Beata Vergine" when the plague, which had struck the territory of Larciano, was finally moving away and was dedicated to the saint considered protector against evil. In 1884 San Rocco was detached from San Silvestro on which it depended and three years later it was recognized as a parish. This event marked the beginning and subsequent development of the town of San Rocco distinct from Larciano Alto. In 1897, when Larciano obtained administrative autonomy from Lamporecchio, the center of San Rocco obtained the seat of the Town Hall, restored and inaugurated in June 1997.

In the municipal area of ​​Larciano there are other inhabited localities and minor villages. The main ones are Baccane, Biagiotti, Case di Monte, Mungherino and Puntoni.

How to get

How to get around

What see

• 43.8339810.890221 Larciano Castle, Piazza Castello. Fortification that rises on the slopes of Montalbano, used by the Pistoians in the Middle Ages as a lookout tower. From the top of the manor, in fact, the castle of Cecina di Larciano could be clearly seen, and, from this, those of Montevettolini and Monsummano, gradually up to the fort of Serravalle Pistoiese. Today, the tower houses the Archaeological Civic Museum of Larciano Castello.  

• 43.8228810.831192 Villa Banchieri (Castelmartini Villa). The villa stands on the site of an ancient fortress built in the thirteenth century by a certain "Martino di Jacopo Ammannati". The castle was later transformed into the current villa and belonged to various aristocratic families: the Ammannati, the Panciatichi, the Medici, the Lorraine. Finally, in 1777 it was bought by Pietro Banchieri. The current appearance is due to the works of 1890, designed by the architect Francesco Bartolini, who drew a Renaissance style villa from the rustic aspect of the fortress. The villa is accessed from an avenue with a double row of holm oaks, while another avenue of cypresses connects the villa to the recent swimming pool. The garden has a nineteenth-century taste, with large grassy lawns, flower beds and a pond with marsh essences. Among the tree species present there are pines, firs, linden trees, holm oaks, oaks and exotic plants such as prunus campanulata, originally from China, i taxodum, the aspirea and the tree of Judas.  

• 43.82472210.8761113 Church of San Rocco. The church of San Rocco was built in the nineteenth century in neo-Renaissance style in place of a seventeenth-century oratory dedicated to the French saint.

The façade of the church, preceded by a churchyard, is a salient facade, devoid of particular decorations. In correspondence with the nave, in the center, there is the only portal (with a polychrome mosaic lunette depicting theAnnunciation by Gino Terreni, also author of the cast bronze panels, which adorn the portal and, in the nave, the altar, the ambo, the baptismal font, the Blessed Sacrament and the seat, in pietra serena) and the circular rose window. On the back of the building, next to the apse, the bell tower with a square base rises, whose cell opens outwards with a mullioned window on each side.

The interior of the church has a Latin cross plan, with a single nave covered with a barrel vault with lunettes, a protruding transept and a deep semicircular apse; the walls and vaults are characterized by the alternation of white plaster and gray of the structural elements, such as the pilasters and cornices. The cross is covered by a dome, without a drum and frescoed with the Madonna in glory by an unknown 19th century author. The fresco in the apse depicts Jesus Christ and it is the work of Paolo Graziani.  

• 43.83361110.894 Parish church of San Silvestro. It is a building of Romanesque origin, modified over time. Inside, the single nave was lengthened and the apse demolished and replaced with a Latin cross transept and a rectangular apse. On the counter-façade is the organ, perhaps the oldest in the Valdinievole (16th century - 17th century), with an exhibit in carved, painted and gilded wood. At the entrance, two seventeenth-century piled-up stoups, the one on the right set on a fifteenth-century column; inside a niche, a beautiful marble baptismal font (1532). A curious and interesting painting depicts The miracles of Sant'Antonio between San Francesco and San Michele Arcangelo (1663). In the center of the choir, a nineteenth-century painting with San Silvestro baptizing Constantine by Bartolomeo Valiani.  

• 43.82333310.8372225 Church of San Donnino. The church, with its triangular gable façade, is a neoclassical building built in the 19th century in place of a smaller chapel. The belfry stands on the left transept; inside, the single nave and the transept have simply plastered bare walls. A canvas with San Giuseppe between the saints Antonio Abate and Donnino from the first half of the 18th century. Behind, a wooden choir dated 1877. In the right arm of the transept, there is a valuable marble altar carved from the typical Baroque layout: the modeling of the flying angels holding an oval inside which was placed a small canvas depicting the Madonna del Carmine, which was stolen in 1972.  
  

  Church of San Niccolò
• 43.84888910.8763896 Church of San Niccolò. Subject of various interventions over the centuries, it has a triangular gable façade, flanked on the left side by the stone bell tower. The interior, with a single nave with apse and left side chapel, is covered by cross and barrel vaults and preserves, on the left altar, a wooden Crucifix from the end of the 14th century. Above the right altar a painting depicting Raffaele and Tobiolo and the Saints Sigismondo, Lorenzo and Rocco of the Florentine school of the late fifteenth century, close to the ways of Botticelli. To the right of the main altar, detached fresco with Enthroned Madonna and Saints by a Tuscan artist of the first half of the sixteenth century.  
• 43.7948910.827667 Museum of Rural Life Casa Dei, Via Traversa di Brugnana, ☎ 39 335 7789139, @[email protected]. Located inside a two-storey farmhouse in the Fucecchio Marshes, the museum collects materials from peasant life relating to the early twentieth century. The museum is divided into sections and the ultimate goal is to make people aware of the relationship established between the place, agricultural activity and the role in peasant life at the time. The aforementioned museum is created in collaboration with the Tuscany Region and with the patronage of the Province of Pistoia and the Municipality of Larciano in the context of the project called "Along the Migratory Routes" and has entered the museum network of the Tuscany Region since 2012. 
• 43.8340810.890248 Civic Museum of Larciano Castello, Castle Square 1, ☎ 39 0573 858150. Located in Larciano Castello and inaugurated in 1975, the museum collects objects from the Valdinievole area and objects arrived from other places, through donations or temporary loans from other museums. The finds cover a large temporal space that starts from prehistoric times up to the late Renaissance. The museum is organized in two sections: one local and one educational. 
• 43.8236510.838569 Monument in memory of the victims of the Massacre of the Fucecchio Marshes and of the Tuscan Fighters, Via Morette. The Carrara marble work created by master Gino Terreni from Empoli celebrates the amazement and drama of the 175 innocents, among whom we find above all women, the elderly and children, who are about to be shot by Nazi soldiers, those same soldiers who had been hosted in the homes of the Larcianesi. The monument was inaugurated in September 2002 in Castelmartini, the site of one of the bloodiest massacres committed by the Nazi-fascists after the armistice, an event known as the Massacre of the Fucecchio Marshes; the then President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was also present at the inauguration. In addition, seven preparatory works are permanently present at the Center for Research, Documentation and Promotion of the Fucecchio Marsh, including the original plaster of the aforementioned monument. 
• 43.82492210.83873210 Garden of Remembrance, Via Francesca. Inaugurated on 23 August 1996 in Castelmartini, the Garden aims to commemorate the massacre carried out on 23 August 1944 by the Nazi-fascists, in which 175 people lost their lives. It was created by Andrea Dami and Simone Fagioli, who recovered the former cemetery by intervening with permanent art installations. The work called "Paysage", by Andrea Dami, features 36 carved panels dedicated to the dead in the municipality of Larciano: the quadrangular and cubic signs recall women, while the spherical and round ones evoke men. The shapes are not the same, just as the different lives of the victims were not, and they are located slightly obliquely to the horizon, meaning the randomness and unpredictability of life. In addition, Andrea Dami and Simone Fagioli created the "walkable postcard" called "My brother is here", which is a series of graphic-cultural themes that emerged from eighty-two emails arriving from different countries in Europe, America and Asia. "My brother is here" consists of nine mosaic "pictograms-seats-tables-platforms" representing the world (universality of the message), the man / woman relationship (human archetype), the eye (symbol of direct vision of the massacre), the table of peace (element of constant reflection), the sun / moon duality (duality of life), the cross (sacrifice of the 175 victims in the massacre), blood (blood of all the people killed), the dove (symbol of peace par excellence) and the word "no!" (one word against violence and war). 
• 43.8336510.8898211 Marzocco, Piazza Castello. In the Florentine Republic, the marzocco was a lion symbol of popular power. In the fourteenth century, next to Palazzo Vecchio (Florence, Italy), the Signoria kept a menagerie of lions, hence the name of the street "via dei Leoni". Even today in Florence in Piazza della Signoria there is an example of a marzocco. The example of marzocco found in the center of the square of Larciano Castello differs from the Florentine marzocco for the lack of a lion's head; it is said, in fact, that this was stolen by the nearby and historical rival Cecina. 
• Porta Bagno, Porta San Marco and Porta Meridionale.. The wall path today has three entrance doors; a door to the north-west (Porta San Marco), a door to the north-east (Porta Bagno) and finally a door to the south (Porta Meridionale). In the description of the castle of the Liber Censuum (dated to the year 1382) duarum portis, quarum una vocatur Porta a Bagno, et alia Porta S. Marci are mentioned. However, it is difficult to recognize through this toponymy to which of these doors the document refers and, consequently, to date these entrances. The Bagno door and the San Marco door have the same constructive characteristic, namely the Liutprando foot (ancient unit of measurement of Lombard origin), which allows them to be dated between the 10th and 13th centuries. While the San Marco gate is related to the expansion of the 13th century walls, the Bagno gate could already refer to the first stone walls dating back to the 12th century. In addition, this last door witnessed the lowering of the threshold level, linked to profound changes in the internal viability of the castle, which also led to the destruction of part of the walls. The Southern gate, on the other hand, is the most recent of the three access points to the village, as can be seen in the use of the Pistoiese arm as a modular base. It was built following the extension of the walls, therefore after the year 1382, but prior to the establishment of the Florentine arm as a single module in Tuscany, and therefore prior to the end of the 18th century. 

Where to eat

Average prices

• Il Ghianda farmhouse, via Ghianda 784. 
• The Marzocco, via Paolo Pucci 144. 
• Versilia as it was, via San Giuseppe 13. Restaurant and pizzeria. 
• 14 Red, via Biccimurri 14. Pizzeria and brewery. 

Where stay

Average prices

• Castelmartini Wellness & Business Hotel, via Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, 1100, ☎ 39 0573-1943420, @[email protected]. 
• Le Baccane farmhouse, via Francesca 2373 / C (San Rocco hamlet), ☎ 39 0573-84259. 

Safety

How to keep in touch

Post office

• Italian post, via Castelmartini 7. 
• Italian post, via Giacomo Puccini 3. 

Around

• Montecatini Terme
• Pistoia
• Win

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Larciano
• Commons contains images or other files on Larciano

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