Popiglio Watch Towers

The second tower.

This zone of the Pistoiese Mountain, the high valley of the Lima river, belonged to the counts Guidi of Modigliana who possessed the castles of Popiglio and Piteglio, as it emerges from the imperial diplomas of Arrigo VI� of the year 1191 and Frederick II�; of the years 1220 and 1247. Later the area was subjected to the power of the nearby town of Pistoia and the two castles had the same 'Podest�'.

The northern side of the valley is dominated by Popiglio. The 'castrum de Popilio' is noted since the high Middle Age, even if the only certain notice is those relative to its ownership by the counts Guidi. As said the castle was dominated from the Pistoiesi and then became part of the territories of the Florentine Republic.

In the village of Popiglio there are no more traces of the ancient fortifications and of the town-walls that enclosed it, while on the vertex of the mountain overlooking it there still rise two powerful towers.


The main tower with the scarce rests of the encircling walls.	The landscape from the towers

The 'Torri di Popiglio' (Popiglio Watchtowers) both have square shapes and rise to different levels at short distance one from the other: the most elevated to the vertex, the other about twenty meters below.

The first tower, partially collapsed, rises today for approximately half of its original height and very scarce remains of the elliptically shaped walls that encircled it can still be found. Probably inside of this curtain rose other buildings, as we can imagine from the remains of a collapsed construction on the north east side, and this was surely the seat of the commander of the entire defensive system.

The other tower did not have additional fortifications and probably acted as an intermediate connection between the country and the main point of the defensive system, with its remanants today higher than those of its 'twin'. From this position we can admire an unique landscape on the Apennine Mountain and dominate the entire underlying valley.