VISIONS OF TUSCANY

VILLAGE FESTIVAL

VISIONS OF TUSCANY

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Click here to see a road map of the Arezzo Province CASTEL FOCOGNANO The village of Rassina stretches out along the state road No. 71 where the stream of the same name empties into the Arno. Rassina, the administrative centre of the commune, displays the typical shape of villages that grow alongside major roads in the plain. The former administrative centre, Castel Focognano, in ancient times Castrum, has ruins of 14th-century fortifications and the Palazzo Podestarile, whose façade is decorated with the armorial bearings of the podestas (magistrates) who dispensed justice there. There is also a little loggia dating from the 15th century. A few metres away stands the Torre di Ronda (watch-tower), a small, recently restored structure with an octagonal base, which is all that remains of the original 11th-century castle destroyed by Bishop Tarlati in 1322. Today it is the site of a documentation centre for the rural culture of Casentino, preserving implements and manufactured articles related to agrarian, woodland and pastoral life by developing the themes of forestry and farming, sheep-raising, and wool processing. A few kilometres from Rassina, at Pieve a Socana, the Romanesque church of Sant’Antonino, with its characteristic cylindrical bell-tower, is well worth a visit. Three civilisations - Etruscan, Roman and Christian - are represented in this 2000-year-old place of worship. From the Etruscan period, excavations have brought to light a magnificent sacrificial altar and the temple steps. The present church can be dated to the 12th century even though it is mentioned in a document from 1072. Unearthed ruins attest to the presence of a church prior to the 11th century. The base of the free-standing cylindrical campanile, covered with vertical pilaster strips made of slabs of sandstone, dates from this period. At Salutio, the Church of Sant’Eleuterio, in Romanesque style with probable Byzantine origins and baroque elements, makes for an interesting visit. The Church of Sante Flora e Lucilla, which contains a precious polyptych by Mariotto di Cristofano (1425) and a canvas by A. Pontenani (1615), overlooks the mountain village of Carda.