Fronzola Castle

The walls of the castle, almost invisible, in the wood.

The poor, ruined and abandoned rests  of Fronzola Castle can be found not far from the inhabited area of Poppi. The only signaling is present, even if almost illegible, hardly on the left of the street that gone out from the centre of Poppi . The ruins are reachable following a road in the wood starting  around 100 meters on the right after the entry of the golf club of the city.

Fronzola, known also in the past as Fronzole, was one of the many castles of the counts of the Guidi family present in the Casentino Valley. In the Middle Age their power was equal, if not greater, of that of the near castle of  Poppi. The only historical date that is recorded about the castle is the year of 1440, when it was levelled to the ground from the Florentine army.

The church of Fronzola between the ruins of the castle.

Unfortunately from the today's miserable rests,  totally covered by the vegetation, is difficult to have an idea of the structure of the castle, despite from their position to crown of a hill of 570 meters high, we can deduce easily the great strategic importance of it. Our days remain standing only a portion of the enclosure of the keep, inside which is better not to walk for danger of collapses. Characteristic and well conserved is instead the chapel that originally was to be inside the  external walls that surrounded the outer ward. Under the core of the fortification rise a group of  houses, in large part abandoned, that form a classical medieval suburb. Due to the the complex  state of conservation I don't feel myself to recommend its visit unless you are not attracted by the idea to reach a place that in the Middle Age let kneel to the its strength almost all the near cities, this can be deduced by the local motto 'Quando Fronzola fronzolava Poppi e Bibbiena s'inchinavan.' (when Fronzola 'fronzolava' Poppi and Bibbiena was bent, but its intraducible!)