Castelmuzio, an ancient village dating back to the time of the Etruscans, is built on a volcanic limestone hilltop overlooking an amazing landscape. Castelmuzio is located close to the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Val d'Orcia Artistic, Natural and Cultural Park. These coveted designations are protecting this area’s cultural and artistic heritage and its miracle of nature called the crete senesi, a countryside characterized by undulating ploughed hills and densely forested woods. Castelmuzio is a mesmerizing medieval hamlet and precious treasure of the real Tuscany, and has been wonderfully preserved–you can touch the medieval walls, see the watch tower, and enter the village through the ancient arched stone gate. The cloister Sant Anna in Camprena and the old church Pieve de Santo Stefano in Cennano are situated on opposite sides of the village.

Castelmuzio is a charming medieval village of Etruscan-Roman origin. Like the whole zone it belonged to the powerful Signori Cacciaconti della Scialenga whose wide dominions included the Fratta farm, not far from Sinalunga, as far as the Castrum di Montepulciano.
Over the years Castelmuzio has been called by several names, Castel Mozzo and later Castello. The local people still refer to it simply as Castello. You can see the old city walls and ramparts, including the embrasures through which cannons were fired. The village came into its own in the 13th century, when many of the buildings you see today were built.
Castelmuzio is constructed on a volcanic limestone mount and is defended by walls and ramparts in which the cannon embrasures can still be seen. These are formed of randomly placed limestone and sandstone blocks, as is the Casa Torre in the main square.
There are 4 narrows sloping streets, all leading to the square under which lies an ancient travertine based water cistern. In this square, the Piazza della Pieve, the most important buildings are La chiesa Plebana, Casa Torre, Spedale di San Giovanni Battista and la confraternità della SS Trinità and S. Bernardino.

The tower, a prominent part of the fortified castle, stood watch over the countryside to protect the citizens from local enemies and barbarians from far away. Later, in the 16th century, it became the village’s civic building and housed the town council meetings and provided residence for the town prior. The tower is part of the Palazzo Fratini, which was once the medieval Spedale di San Giovanni Battista (hospital of St. John the Baptist).

The pieve di Santo Stefano a Cennano

Pieve di Santo Stefano in Cennano

Pieve di Santo Stefano a Cennano, absis

The medieval village of Trequanda, crowned by the remnants of the ancient Cacciaconti castle, is situated between the Val di Chiana and the Val d' Asso. The former medieval village still has visible remnants of its outer walls and two of the original three entrance portals. It stands on the top of a hill in a well maintained natural environment of woods, tidy fields of vines, olives and cereal crops. A third of the village is taken up by the castle Cacciaconti and its various annexes including a small ornamental garden. The majestic stone tower, partly rebuilt after the war, dominates the entire complex from the north-east and is a singular witness to the original fortified castle structure.
The piazza of Trequanda, with its old stone benches, instantly creates the feeling of a lively and much-loved village of the Sienese region. The small unusual Romanesque church, with a façade checkered in white and ochre, deserves of being named the parish church of the Saints Peter and Andrea, dating back to the 13th century. It is a beautiful Romanesque-gothic construction with a particular facade covered with white and ochre color stones forming a geometrical chessboard pattern. In the interior, on the high altar, there is a wonderful polyptych of the Sienese painter Giovanni di Paolo (1479-1549) and here the remains of the Beata Bonizzella Cacciaconti are preserved in a richly decorated urn, a masterpiece of the 16th century Sienese art. On the right wall a beautiful fresco by Sodoma (1479-1549), a fresco by Bartolomeo Mirana, on the left wall there is a niche with a statue representing a Madonna with Infant by Sansovino and a majolica representing the Ascension of the Della Robbia’s school.
From the airy town square where stand the castle, town hall and the splendid romanic church of SS. Pietro and Andrea, the highest point of the hill, steep and narrow roads and alleys descend where the attentive visitor will be surprised to find ancient covered passages, small votive ceramics, family crests, and beautiful benches in travertine and tufa.

Chiesa della Madonna del sodo

The comune Trequanda comprises the three villages of Trequanda, Petroio and Castelmuzio, and occupies an area of 64 sq km, more than a third of which is covered with lush woods of oak and a wide variety of mediterranean herbs.
The road which links the villages offers a series of particulary attractive scenery and views.

Chiesa dei SS. Pietro e Andrea, in Trequanda

Grancia is a fortified farm complex dating from the 14th century, built on the edge of Montisi, around a courtyard that stored provisions for the Spedale of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. This extraordinary organisation took care of the flood of pilgrims to Rome that travelled the Via Francigena from the 12th century onwards, and was always in need of supplies.
In 1295 Simone dei Cacciaconti, Lord of Montisi, left his estate in Montisi to the Hospital of St. Maria della Scala in Siena.
In the next century the Hospital built a small fortress with a high tower on the Western boundary of the village. It was to be used as a Grancia, a granary for the storage of the produce grown on the property.
In 1775 Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, issued an order to sell the estate of the Hospital, including the Grancia of Montisi. It was bought by Jacopo Mannucci Benincasa in 1778 and has remained in the family to this day.

The word grancia, or grange, of French derivation, denotes a building with the functions of storehouse and granary. In the middle ages granges were rural buildings situated on the estate of an abbey for the storage of agricultural produce.
Initially the Sienese granges had both of these features. They came under the Spedale di S. Maria della Scala of Siena and consisted of buildings for storing the harvests of an extensive property. But in Siena the granges had an additional specific element: they were equipped with considerable fortified structures. They were built, in a word, not only to preserve agricultural produce but also and above all to defend it against military threats.

Festival Solo Belcanto - Montisi (Siena)
In the heart of Tuscany, a small theater, il Teatro della Grancia, hosts the festival devoted to the art of singing. Il Teatro della Grancia is a tiny theatre built in the 18oos with seating for 52 people and currently one of the smallest active theatres in the world.

Events in Tuscany | Festival Solo Belcanto - Montisi (Siena)

East of Trequanda you reach Sinalunga, a modern, thriving centre with connections to Siena, Arezzo and Chiusi. It has one notabIe painting, an anunciation by Benvenuto di Giovanni, in the church of San Francesco.