The history

The old village of Il Tresto, located on the center of the farm, rises in the middle age along the ancient Via Francigena, close to the Castle of Strozzavolpe, in proximity to the church of San Martino a Luco and to the Castle of the Magione.

The Via Francigena

The Via Francigena, a historical itinerary leading to Rome from Canterbury, bears witness to the importance of the practice of pilgrimage in medieval times; the pilgrim was to travel mostly on foot, for penitential reasons, covering about 20-25 Km a day. The pilgrim did not travel alone but in a group and he used to carry the pilgrimage emblems: the shell for Santiago de Compostela, the cross for Jerusalem and the key for Saint Peter in Rome. Along these pilgrim routes, there were places where one could find refuge for the night (hospitia) and assistance for the sicks (hospitales).

The Castle of Strozzavolpe

The name of the castle origins from the legend of a wildest fox that hampered the construction of the castle until it was hanged and filled with gold to ensure to the castle an exsistence as long as the body of the fox. The castle of Strozzavolpe is the most important of the small fortifications that surrounded the inhabited area of Poggibonsi and the only arrived practically intact to us. Strozzavolpe is remembered as 'Scoriavolpe' in a 1154 document, passed during 1330 from the family Salimbeni to the Adimari of Florence. The castle still preserves the irregular perimeter of the medieval walls with the only access through a tower, the ancient keep. The place and the athmosphere are really suggestive and, maybe, someone saw the phantom of the fox to wander about the castle….

The Castle of the Magione

The Castle of the Magione is a wondeful monumental complex that dates from the 12th century. The whole complex belonged in a first time to the Templar and from 14th century to the Gerosolimitani monks. Two building structures, one of the Spedale and the one called 'castle' are encircled by walls that join both together, but inside the single structures are separate, both looking on to on a small inner courtyard. The Spedale has two entrances, one of them is opened on the wall on the road side: this allowed the access of the pilgrims in the nocturnal hours, when all the other accesses were closed.

San Martino a Luco

Not far from the Castle of Strozzavolpe there is San Martino a Luco, a church of Romanesque origin, made by regular blocks of tufa and travertine, mentioned for the first time in the 983. In the 998 was given by the marquise Ugo di Toscana to the Badia of Marturi and, in the following centuries, lived continuos fights for the control of its richness.