Mura di Anghiari (borgo fortificato)

Anghiari's defensive walls preserve the outline of the medieval borgo and its later expansion under Florentine rule. The settlement is first documented in 1048, and the surviving curtain walls were rebuilt and extended in the sixteenth century.

Why it matters

Anghiari's walls explain the relationship between the hilltop settlement, the Borghetto and the Tiber valley. The fortifications formed the edge of a town whose position made it strategically important to regional powers. The battle fought beneath Anghiari on 29 June 1440 and the later Florentine rebuilding both belong to this history.

What to notice

The curtain walls follow the hill's edge and incorporate earlier defensive elements. Their sixteenth-century construction reflects changes in military architecture and the expansion of Anghiari under Florentine rule. Historic gates preserve the points where routes entered the borgo, while the Campano tower rises above the medieval quarter. The walls and adjoining buildings form a continuous defensive and urban fabric.

Context and history

Anghiari is first documented in a parchment of 1048. By the late Middle Ages it was a fortified community on the Tuscan side of the Tiber valley. On 29 June 1440 Florentine and Milanese armies fought on the plain below the town; the Florentine victory later inspired Leonardo da Vinci's commission to paint the battle in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. Under Florentine rule, the enclosure was rebuilt and extended in the sixteenth century, producing much of the defensive line that still defines the borgo.