Scandicci - Scandicci

Scandicci (former Casellina and Towers) is a municipality in the province of Florence.

To know

Geographical notes

Its territory extends over an area bounded by the Arno river, which forms the natural border to the north, up to the valley of the Pesa river to the southwest. The Vingone stream passes through Scandicci and various hamlets. The Scandicci area is surrounded by the green of its woods, hills and some parks.

Background

In official documents Scandicci appears for the first time in a document from the end of the 10th century, but traces of prehistoric and Hellenistic settlements have been found, not to mention those of the Roman era. The municipality was born on 23 May 1774 with the merger of the territories of the municipalities of Casellina and Torri, from which in 1833 some territories were subtracted to the advantage of that of Lastra a Signa. The municipality then bordered with those of Legnaia, San Casciano in Val di Pesa, Montespertoli, Lastra a Signa e Brozzi. Curiously, the municipality was not based in its own territory but in another municipality: the municipal house was located in Florence, first in Palazzo Albizi in via dell'Oriuolo (together with that of the Municipality of Bathroom in Ripoli).

In 1865 the municipality of Casellina e Torri annexed a part of the suppressed municipality of Legnaia with the hamlets of San Bartolo and Santa Maria a Cintoia, Marignolle, San Lorenzo a Greve, Mosciano, Casignano and Scandicci but at the same time lost the hamlet of The Romola for the benefit of the municipality of San Casciano in Val di Pesa. After these changes, the municipal area reached 70 km².

In 1866 the first city fair was held, born as a simple cattle fair, it took place in Piazza Umberto I (today Piazza Matteotti) in the village known as Scandicci. Bingo tournaments, horse races are organized and during these occasions acrobats arrived and the band played hymns and marches. The new fraction of Scandicci was chosen in 1868 as the new seat of the municipal building (in a place called "Tabernacle of the Marquis Baglioni") even if the municipality kept the old double denomination.

On February 28, 1921 the local population was the protagonist of the defense of the country against a fascist expedition, against which barricades were erected, knocked down by the black shirts only with the aid of a cannon.

In 1929, the municipality took the name of Scandicci. In the following years the town was expanded territorially to incorporate the communities of Cintoia, Marignolle and part of Soffiano but remained a village until the sixties when a real wave of immigration (especially from Florence, from the countryside of the province and from others areas of Tuscany), in just under 10 years, the municipal population triples. The historical result of the merger of the various hamlets, the urban center is today a single agglomeration closed in a quadrilateral with Florence to the north and east, the A1 Autostrada del Sole motorway to the west and the Scandicci Alto hill to the south.

Scandicci was freed from Nazi-fascism on 4 August 1944.

How to orient yourself

Scandicci is among the most populated municipalities of the metropolitan city of Florence. With the growing size of the population and the consequent urban development, the town of Scandicci is today located on the border of the city of Florence, with the two inhabited centers joining together without an obvious border.

Fractions

The hamlets present in the municipal area are: Badia a Settimo, Capannuccia, Casellina, Giogoli, Granatieri, Grioli, Le Bagnese, Olmo, Mosciano, Pieve a Settimo, Rinaldi, San Colombano, San Giusto a Signano, San Martino alla Palma, San Michele in Torri, San Vincenzo a Torri, Santa Maria a Marciola, Scandicci Alto, Vingone, Viottolone.

How to get

By car

It is directly accessible from:

• A1 motorway (in the Florence-Rome) there is the toll booth of Florence-Scandicci.
• SGC FI-PI-LI towards Pisa/Livorno accessing from Viale Etruria (Florence) and heading south from the Scandicci junction.

By bus

Tramway, T1 line, opened in 2010, allows direct connection with the historic center of Florence.

How to get around

What see

Religious architectures

In the municipal area there are numerous religious buildings. The oldest date back to the first millennium of the Christian era.

• 43.769911.14941 Parish church of San Giuliano in Settimo, Via della Pieve, 44, ☎ 39 055 7310077, @[email protected]. Perhaps already existing in the last years of the Lombard kingdom (774). The famous Badia a Settimo was founded in the suffragan church of San Salvatore at the beginning of the 11th century. In 1580 the oratory of the Company was built. Between 1656 and 1666 the church was renovated in the Baroque style. Four altars were built (dedicated respectively to Sant'Antonio, Santissimo Crocifisso, Santa Lucia and San Bartolomeo), a chapel dedicated to Santa Maria was also built and a neoclassical portico was built on the facade. Other works took place in 1691 and involved the sacristy. The church consists of a basilica with three naves, divided by six bays on quadrangular pillars and ending with three apses. The central nave is raised with respect to the side aisles and the roof originally had wooden trusses but today it is sometimes. It has a bell tower and originally probably also had a crypt.  

• 43.750211.14382 Church of San Martino alla Palma. The toponym, correlated with the dedication to San Martino di Tours protector of travelers, could imply a link with the pilgrimage, given that palmieri were called those returning from Holy Land, because they carried a blessed olive branch. Its history has been linked, since 988, to that of the Badia a Settimo. The building is preceded by a large sixteenth-century portico, which also turns on the left side; the plant, with a single nave and no transept, is the result of two extensions of the 13th and 15th centuries. The interior retains the late Baroque dress received in 1777-79. On the left altar, the famous panel of the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels attributed to the so-called Master of San Martino alla Palma (14th century).  

• 43.78083311.1458333 Abbey of Saints Salvatore and Lorenzo in Settimo (Badia a Settimo). TO Florence and surroundings there have been five "badie"(popular contraction of the word abbey), located as at the cardinal points of the city: to the north the Badia Fiesolana, to the west the Badia a Settimo, to the south the abbey of San Miniato, to the east the Badia a Ripoli and to the center the Florentine Abbey. This abbey was built in the 10th century by the Cadolingi counts to increase control over the territory. During the 11th century the abbey's patrimony increased considerably thanks to donations. On March 18, 1236, by order of Pope Gregory IX, the Cistercians from the abbey of San Galgano settled in the monastery. In 1290 the naves were raised and the floor raised, in 1315 the chapel of San Jacopo was built with frescoes by Buffalmacco and later the whole monastery was reorganized according to the needs of the Cistercians. From 1891 to the present day, restorations are in progress that have led to the consolidation of the structure and the rehabilitation of the crypt. The church is the center of the fortified abbey complex and consists of a basilica with three naves covered with a roof and originally concluded by semicircular apses; the vast crypt still exists and on the left side is the bell tower. The most important works of art present in the church are the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, panel by Domenico Buti signed and dated 1574, two medallions depicting The Angel and the Annunciation by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1487) and the tabernacle by Giuliano da Maiano.  

• 43.752711.18644 Church of Santa Maria in Greve (also Santa Maria in Scandicci), Piazza Amedeo Benini, 1. Founded in 978, the church was donated to the Abbey of Florence, passing in 1246 to the church of San Romolo and subsequently to Orsanmichele. It was restored and enlarged in 1894-1895 and on that occasion a fourteenth-century fresco came to light (under a layer of seventeenth-century plaster) from the ancient facade. The interior of the church is in a sober modern style (with some neo-Gothic traces) and consists of a single nave covered with exposed wooden trusses and ending with a deep semicircular apse illuminated by single lancet windows closed by polychrome windows. On the left wall, a valuable glazed terracotta tabernacle, depicting the Madonna and Child, of the circle of Giovanni Della Robbia. On the right wall a painting by Pietro Benvenuti depicting was hung Christ in the desert restored by the Angels of 1828.  

Even the historical period that goes from the eleventh century to the fifteenth century saw the birth of other parishes and churches. In fact, places of worship were born on the hills that dominate the city, such as:

• 43.72564411.1981225 Parish church of Sant'Alessandro in Giogoli (In Giogoli). The parish church of sancti Alexandri sitam Jugulo it is situated in a dominant position along via Volterrana and is mentioned for the first time in 1005 when it was one of the bishop's strongholds for the control of the suburban territory together with the nearby fortified center of Monteramoli. The church must have been of considerable importance, in the context of the Florentine parish churches as it was one of the few to have a baptistery outside the church. During the seventeenth century various works were carried out. During the Second World War it suffered extensive damage, including the collapse of the eighteenth-century ceiling. Immediately subjected to restoration, the Romanesque members were restored, the seventeenth-century decorations were recovered and the vaults of the three naves were rebuilt. The church consists of a three-nave basilica ending with a semicircular apse. It is located in the center of a group of buildings: on the left the Company, on the right the rectory with the cloister and some farm structures, which incorporate a medieval tower.  

• 43.699111.09836 Parish church of San Vincenzo in Torri, Via Empolese. Of medieval origin. The exterior of the church does not present any significant details. Inside the bell tower there are four bells of various sizes, the largest dates back to 1885. The unusual size of the hall would suggest a larger layout with three naves, of which the remains of the column bases under the floor would remain. Inside is the suggestive Crucifix polychrome wood attributable to the Emilian school dating from around 1220/1225 which dominates the liturgical scene in the center of the apse.  

In the plain part arose:

• 43.759711.19837 Church of San Giusto in Signano. The area of ​​Signano derives its name, perhaps, from a Roman settlement: a praedium Asinii or asininanum. The bell tower was built at the behest of the people of Signano and is dated 1844; it was restored in 1895 and after the 2nd World War. The interior is bare, but retains a valuable panel depicting the Madonna and Child Enthroned between Saints Peter and Paul and Angels. The work was found in the 1880s and has been attributed to Bernardo Daddi. Another noteworthy work of art is a panel depicting the Crucifixion with the Magdalene at the foot of the cross (datable between the 16th and 17th centuries), by an unknown Florentine artist from the circle of Santi di Tito. The list of works of art is completed by a crucifix, revered as miraculous, found according to legend along an embankment of the Greve river by a local farmer while he floated and a panel depicting San Giusto by the painter Paola Azzurri from 1996.  

• 43.777111.13618 Church of San Colombano in Settimo (A Seventh). It is remembered from the 13th century, but is considered to have an older foundation, due to the name of the Irish saint abbot, linked to the Lombard period, and the proximity to the Badia a Settimo, to whose assets it belonged. Of extremely simple architectural structure, with a single nave, it preserves two stone altars inside; on the right one you can admire a good quality panel from the circle of Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio depicting the Madonna offering a pomegranate to the Child. Two large canvases also belong to the church: theApparition of the Child Jesus to Saints Francis, Anthony of Padua and Lorenzo by Iacopo Confortini (1663), and a copy of the Madonna and Child Enthroned venerated by Saints Carlo Borromeo and Filippo Neri by Carlo Maratta.  

It can be clearly stated that most of the Scandicci churches that have come down to us today have a medieval origin and that the period from the fifteenth century to the twentieth century does not give us new places of worship, but only the reworking of the existing ones. The city's religious heritage, however, had a notable development after World War II, as a consequence of the building and demographic growth of Scandicci. In fact, the creation of new parishes and places of worship followed the birth of entire new residential districts (Casellina, Vingone, Le Bagnese, the new center of Scandicci):

• 43.76400211.1762369 Church of Jesus Good Shepherd (In Casellina). The village of Casellina, where the church is located, was initially included in the parish of San Pietro in Sollicciano. Following the strong demographic and building increase of the 1950s, Cardinal Ermenegildo Florit in 1965 thought it appropriate that a new parish should be born in Casellina. The church of the Casellina is a reinforced concrete building, characterized by a horizontal development, accentuated by the roof with slightly sloping pitches that lean on the perimeter walls covered in stone. The roof protrudes into the facade where it is supported by square section reinforced concrete pillars that form a portico. The slender and slender bell gable formed by two reinforced concrete walls tapering upwards and arranged in plan to form an acute angle stands out on the roof to counteract the horizontal trend. Inside the church there is a deposit, granted by the Superintendence for the historical and artistic heritage of Florence, a bronze crucifix attributed to the school of Giambologna.  
• 43.750911.17646510 Church of San Luca (In the territory of Vingone). Active since 1965, in 1972 the parish returned for the first time among those object of a pastoral visit by Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli. It was only after the second pastoral visit, which took place in January 1985, that the parish priest was commissioned to build a new church, which was built between 1994 and 1997. The building has a central core in reinforced concrete with vertical development, surrounded by a low structure with perimeter walls in terracotta. The bell gable, slender and slender, is made up of two reinforced concrete walls tapering upwards where, since February 1996, the four bells offered by citizens have been housed thanks to a fundraiser.  

• 43.759511.185811 Church of San Bartolomeo in Tuto, Via Gaetano Salvemini, ☎ 39 055 252741, @[email protected]. The toponym all derives from the Latin and means "safety" and "protection", as the old church offered shelter to the inhabitants from floods, and was a valid place of defense for the inhabitants of the valley. The great church of Scandicci, built between 1974 and 1993, has a reinforced concrete construction with an octagonal shape that, in the Florentine context, can only recall the Baptistery, and the enormous "icons" that completely cover the upper area of ​​the classroom, impose themselves with an effect not unlike that of the thirteenth-century mosaics of San Giovanni. Two important works from the old church of San Bartolo have been placed here: one Madonna and Child, by Giovanni da Milano, and one Deposition and saints, attributed to Francesco Granacci.  

In addition to the churches, the city of Scandicci offers a considerable quantity of chapels preserving historical and art masterpieces. These chapels were, and still are, connected to the numerous villas of the city. Among the most important are:

• 43.726411.162312 Chapel of the Madonna della Rosa. The chapel, once connected with a path to the Villa dell'Arrigo, is hidden in the vegetation of the nearby wood. The building has a unique Baroque appearance, with typical white stucco decorations and a large barrel vault. Despite the walled openings, it has been visited several times by vandals and reports a situation of serious abandonment.  
• 43.76062211.13950313 Chapel of San Jacopo. The chapel of San Jacopo is attached to the villa of Castelpulci. The villa was built on an ancient castle of the Cadolingi then of the Pulci, transformed into a villa by the powerful Florentine families of the Soderini (XV-XVI century) and of the Riccardi (XVII-XIX century). Around the thirteenth century, the Pulci, endowed the castle with a private oratory dedicated to San Jacopo. In 1743 the transformation works, from Romanesque to Baroque building, were completed and involved major transformations: the tribune was modified, the fourteenth-century frescoes were covered and rich Baroque-style decorations were added. The chapel is detached from the villa and located in the center of the service building; its drafting is from the eighteenth century, even if the presence on the facade and on the back of a weaving in Alberese refers to a Romanesque origin. The interior retains the elements of the Baroque restructuring such as the stone altars, the choir with the organ inserted in an exhibition of white stucco, the confessionals embedded in the walls and the false doors, but bears the signs of the long period of decline. In the gap between the false vault a and the roof, traces of frescoes dating back to the last decade of the 13th century have been discovered, depicting the Stories of Saint Catherine attributed to Grifo di Tancredi (alias Maestro di San Gaggio); A fragment of a fresco dating back to the end of the fourteenth century was also discovered, depicting the Madonna and Child with a Saint.  

Civil architectures

• 43.75416811.18959514 Old Town Hall, Piazza Matteotti, 31. After Villa Poccianti, this was the seat of the community of Casellina and Torri. In 1870 Eng. Francesco Martelli finished the current building which, with its loggia, recalls the nineteenth-century (neo-Renaissance) architecture from which it was born. At the rear, a further arch allows an easy connection with Piazza Piave, another historic square in Scandicci. In Piazza Matteotti there is a monument to the fallen of the First World War erected in 1926. Until 31 December 2008 the building was the seat of the municipal library.  
• New Town Hall. 
• Rogers Center. Opened in 2013 on a design by architect Richard Rogers. 

In the town of Scandicci there are numerous villas. This presence testifies to the desire of the craftsmen and bourgeois of the past to have a residence, as well as comfortable and out of the way, also an expression of the artistic culture of Florence of which Scandicci was a satellite. In fact, in these villas it is not difficult to find the hand of the same artists called to build more important works in nearby Florence. In this way, the workers and artists were valued and the best could emerge, giving prestige and fame to the Florentine school. After the restoration, the villas themselves, built in scenic but not very accessible areas, required the opening of roads to be reached in a more direct way.

This opening of roads triggered a virtuous circle as the villa could be more easily reached by neighbors who, noticing the work carried out, imitated what had been done in their properties.

• 43.7193511.19491115 Villa I Collazzi (In the locality of Giogoli). It is a majestic Mannerist style villa, located on a rectangular terrace on top of a hill. The villa was built for the Florentine Dini family. Access is through an avenue of cypresses, built in 1853 together with the Cavallerizza, a cypress rotunda used as a riding school and located just beyond the avenue on the left. The villa has a U-shaped body, with a raised courtyard towards Florence, enriched by a double loggia on all three sides, by a double impluvium, each with its own well, and with a panoramic balustrade, reachable via a double ramp staircase. On the south side, on the other hand, the façade is enlivened by two three-arched loggias with the serliana motif, and by a large central portal, raised and decorated with the Dini coat of arms, reachable by a double pincer staircase. Internally the main floor, slightly raised above the cellars, is set around a large central hall, sixteen meters high and covered by a barrel vault with large lacunars, which closely resembles the hall of the villa of Poggio a Caiano, although placed along the central axis and not crosswise as in the Medici villa. The garden has a simple layout, structured on two terraces, the first of which coincides with the floor of the villa while the second terrace, built in the eighteenth century, is located on the south side and is connected to the upper shelf by a staircase.  
• 43.71271511.11159216 Villa I Lami, Via di Marciola, 56 (On the hill of the Pesa side). The villa was commissioned by the Galli family (later Galli-Tassi), which has remained the owner of the building to this day despite the extinction of the main branch of the family (1863). The building, separated from the road to Marciola by a lawn and a low wall with a gate, has a long, white facade with dovecote towers on the sides, synonymous with the austere simplicity typical of sixteenth-century Florentine architecture. On the left side of the building the façade extends in correspondence with a body of the building that is arranged in a square with respect to the front façade of the villa and reaches the street, ending with the chapel. The plan of the building is organized around the central courtyard where, from the east side, one enters the gallery. The latter acts as a connection to the external garden, and is entirely frescoed with 17th century decorations. The chapel is located next to the gate that closes the front lawn of the villa. The structure, still consecrated, seems to be dedicated to Santa Rosa da Lima.  

• 43.76108311.13853617 Villa of Castelpulci, Street of Castelpulci (Near the path). In the place where today the villa is located originally there was a castle of the Cadolingi counts which later passed to the Pulci, who also owned Torre Pulci in Florence. In 1691 the very long access avenue was built. After the expansion works, the body of the building had tripled and was equipped with a spectacular facade, clearly visible from the entire Arno valley between Scandicci and Lastra a Signa. The villa remained the property of the Riccardi until 1854, when the family died. It became public property and was transformed into a psychiatric hospital. The choice was made both for the healthiness of the place and to solve the crowding problems of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. It maintained its hospitalization function until 1973, the year the hospital was closed. In the following decades the villa remained in total abandonment and restoration work has been underway since 2002. In 2012 it became the sole seat of the Scuola Superiore della Magistratura, a higher education institution, with the aim of taking care of the initial and permanent training of the Italian judiciary.  
• Villa I Sassoli (Location San Vincenzo a Torri). Famous for the nineteenth-century paintings well preserved and still present in all the halls and bedrooms of the villa. 
• 43.75640811.19665918 Villa Il Platano (Villa Poccianti), Via Gian Pasquale Poccianti, 5 (Along the main road that leads from Legnaia to Scandicci). Remodeled in the seventeenth century by the Tani family, embellished and enlarged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Medici-Tornaquinci and then by the Poccianti, from 1868 to the end of 1870 it was the seat of the Council of the Municipality of Casellina and Torri. The presence of a private chapel overlooking the bridge (still consecrated) is documented in the villa. The architect Giuseppe Poggi carried out the latest modifications on behalf of the Poccianti family.  

Other civil structures present in the municipal area are:

• 43.70420611.11049719 Mulinaccio of Scandicci (Near San Vincenzo a Torri). Hydraulic mill, today reduced to ruins, a notable example of paleo-industrial architecture, built in 1634, whose activity ceased in 1736. Today the ruins of this imposing work still serve as a bridge between the two banks of the valley. The place has been almost ignored by all the tourist guides in the area and even finding it is not easy since externally it is almost invisible due to the vegetation that covers it. A few tens of meters further downstream you can see the ruins of a second structure, probably a second mill, of which some barrel-vaulted cisterns, gore and millstones remain.  
• Geppetto furnace, Via San Niccolò in Torri. he walls were built using stone and brick from a square base. Today the arches used to insert large openings have been closed over time. 
• 43.77151211.13848420 Palazzaccio (or Palagiaccio, or Portonaccio), Via degli Stagnacci (Location Granatieri). Rural building that belonged to Lorenzo Ghiberti since 1440. The house, which does not represent one of the sculptor's major enterprises, nevertheless constitutes a testimony of the private life and interests of the artist, who must have shown particular affection for the farm. It must have been a fortress transformed into a civil residence after the Florentine Republic made life in the countryside safer and forced its feudal lords to respect the laws and, in some cases, to move to the city. Once the revolts ceased, even the old towers, which were used for defense, became civil dwellings. The Palazzaccio was even equipped with a drawbridge.  
• Poggio Valicaia museum park. Large wooded area used for activities and entertainment, which is located not far from the town. 
• The Roveta. On the hills it is possible to immerse yourself in the greenery of this wooded complex, a destination for outings for those who, living in Scandicci, seek, in a few minutes, a little refreshment from the summer heat. 
• 43.78148111.14544421 GAMPS geopaleontological museum (Avis Mineralogy Paleontology Scandicci Group), Piazza Vittorio Veneto, 1 (In the Ofelia Mangini Civic Center in Badia a Settimo), ☎ 39 055 5321195. Permanent exhibition that offers in addition to a collection of minerals, a vast repertoire of fossil finds from the lands of Tuscany, a typical example of the rich biodiversity that characterized this region during the Pliocene. Opened in 1999, it covers approximately 220 m² over four exhibition rooms. The pieces on display are about 2500.  

Events and parties

• Patronal feast (San Zanobi). May 10. 

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Shows

• 43.76041711.1785921 Theater Studio, Via Donizetti, 58. A rare example of an innovative and experimental theatrical space created in the Florentine metropolitan area. This space favors children's theater and collaboration with schools, but also music and concerts, dance, video, art, new technologies, poetry and various collaborations. In confirmation of the work of innovation and experimentation in the field of the arts, the direction of Scandicci Cultura activates, since April 2011, a webtv project for the municipality of Scandicci.  
• San Matteo Theater (In Casellina). 
• Aurora Theater. 

Where to eat

Where stay

Average prices

• Marzia hotels (3 Star Hotel), Via Duccio Tessari, 2 (Corner of Via Pisana, 246), ☎ 39 055 751203, fax: 39 055 7575358, @[email protected]. 

Safety

How to keep in touch

Keep informed

• Radio Studio 54

Around

• Campi Bisenzio
• Florence
• Impruneta
• Lastra a Signa
• Montespertoli
• San Casciano in Val di Pesa
• Signa

Other projects

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

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