Rocca di Castellina in Chianti

Castellina in Chianti's Rocca is a Florentine fortress whose surviving keep now houses the Archaeological Museum of the Chianti Senese.

Why it matters

The Rocca reflects Castellina's position on the contested frontier between Florence and Siena. Its history of siege, capture and rebuilding is visible in the keep and the defensive circuit around the town.

What to notice

The crenellated keep rises above the town's irregular ring of walls, whose square towers follow the contours of the hill. A covered street, the Via delle Volte, is integrated into the northern side of the defensive complex. The vaulted interior of the keep and the archaeological collection housed within it connect the fortress with the material history of the surrounding Chianti.

Context and history

The hill was settled in Etruscan and Roman times, and medieval records associate its castle with the Guidi counts. After troops allied with Siena destroyed the castle in 1397, Florence rebuilt and strengthened the defences. The fortress resisted a siege in 1452, fell to Aragonese forces in 1478 and returned to Florentine control in 1483. Later strengthening and an early twentieth-century restoration shaped the surviving keep. The Archaeological Museum of the Chianti Senese opened in the complex in 2006.