Tornano Castle

Photos by Francesco Gioffreda

The Castle with the Keep's tower.Inside the Chapel.

Tornano can be reached driving on the SS408, that cross the whole Chianti area toward Siena, following the indications.

The mighty keep.

The Castle of Tornano stands crowning a hill in the heart of the Chianti area, equipped with one of the most beautiful and particular Keep between all those of the medieval castles of Tuscany. In the first years of the 11th century Tornano was seat of a curtis and its name appears many times, in the documents conserved in the near Abbey of Coltibuono, as place where were stipulated many contracts . The castle was ownership of the senese nobleman Guarnellotto dei Mezzolombardi. He came in contrasts with the emperor Frederick I and in 1167 Tornano was gave in fief to Ranieri de' Firidolfi Ricasoli but Guarnellotto, supported by Siena, maintained the control of this castle and of the nearby castle of Campi.

A landscape of the Chianti viewed from the Keep.

Only when the castle became part of the Florentine peasantry was subtracted to the control of Guarnellotto, but Siena never renounced to Tornano that, thanks to its position on a hill at control of the Massellone torrent, was one of the most important strongholds on the chessboards of the Chianti region. In the 1229, after a long siege, the Sienese army conquered the castle to loss it definitively only six years after. In 1400 Tornano was strongly fortified by the Ricasoli and during the Aragonese invasions it was never overcome by the enemy troops. There was nothing to do in the 1530 when imperial troops shaved it partially to the ground.

Today the great part of walls and other buildings are disappeared but the keep, in stone with its particular trapezoidal shape, still dominate the hill of Tornano. All the complex was recently restored and now is the seat of a agrituristical estate of first level.