The Castle

The origins of this ancient castle date back to before the year 1000; in fact, it is mentioned in a document by Emperor Otto I. During the medieval period, the Casentino region was divided into fiefs, and it was the Cattani family who held dominion over the territory of Chiusi, ruling Chiusi della Verna from the castle for over four centuries. It was Count Orlando Cattani himself who, on May 8, 1213, donated Mount La Verna to Francis of Assisi, where the saint traveled for the first time the following year.

The castle subsequently passed under the authority of the Bishop of Arezzo, who, through an act issued on October 29, 1261, declared the Cattani family deposed. The castle initially went to Bishop Guglielmo degli Ubertini and later, in 1324, to Guido Tarlati, who seized it and settled his brother Angelo Tarlato Tarlati and his wife there. The two began the construction work on the Sanctuary’s Basilica, which was later interrupted, and built the Church of San Michele Arcangelo adjacent to the castle.

In 1385, the castle passed to the Florentine Republic. At that time, the castle, equipped with a tower and a strong fortified keep (cassero), was inhabited by 100 men and garrisoned by a castellan and about 15–20 infantrymen. Florence, exercising its acquired rights over the entire territory of Arezzo, granted Chiusi and other castles to their allies, the Counts Guidi di Bagno. However, these properties were confiscated because the counts had joined the alliance with the Duke of Milan alongside the Ubertini family, taking up arms against Florence.

From the early years of the fifteenth century, the gradual dismantling of the imposing castle began. The condottiero Niccolò Piccinino reached the castle in 1404 with his troops and, finding it bare, departed immediately because, as Machiavelli reports, “his horses did not eat stones.” The well-squared stones were repurposed for the construction of other public and private buildings. Mariano da Firenze writes that in 1486, the Florentine nobleman Domenico Bartoli built the new bell tower of La Verna “entirely with stones brought from Chiusi from the palace of the devout Count Orlando.” In 1628, the Grand Duke granted the Compagnia dei Benefattori of Florence permission to use the fortress stones to build the women’s hospice of La Beccia. In 1740, the stones were used to face the southwest wall of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Over the centuries, the remnants of the castle were used to build the small chapel and the boundary wall of the Chiusi cemetery.

Today, following a restoration commissioned by the current owners and the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, the ruins appear clearer and more identifiable than they were at the beginning of the last century, judging by old photographs. Even though these restorations have softened the romantic aura that used to emanate from the ancient ruins clinging to the rock, the site remains incredibly atmospheric.