History
“Suavis locus ille” the amenity of the place or “Sub illice” under the holm oaks are the probable roots of the name of Sovicille, the ancient village overlooked by the Sienese Montagnola.
The origin of the village is traced back to the century. VII d.c. when Siena, due to its strategic importance, had been chosen as the seat of a gastaldato.
At the time, the Lombard element must have prevailed in the city, even ethnically, proven by the numerous castles built in the strategic and most important points of the surrounding countryside and among these also by that of Sovicille.
In the castle, the center of all military, family, economic and social life, all or part of the harvest was stored that the losers had to pay as a “tertiary” tribute to the winners.
The name of “La Sala” reserved for the village of Sovicille at the beginning of the year 1000 is further evidence of the presence of a Lombard settlement in the place.
At the dawn of the year 1000 (1004) the village, which in the course of its existence had known the flourishing and succession of different peoples – Etruscans, Romans, Germans – appears as a possession of the Serena abbey, in whose hands it will remain until towards the middle of the XII century.
Sovicille and its castle appear in a bull of Pope Alexander III addressed to Ugo Bishop of Volterra on 23 April 1179, where “Sufficillum” is mentioned as an external term of the Volterran diocese.
In the group of churches, castles and villages, which Clement III, with his bull of 20 April 1189, recognized Bono as Bishop of Siena, is the Castellum de Suvicille.
Between 1237 and 1238 we find the first documents relating to the municipal organization under the authority of the Republic of Siena. In a document dated December 30, 1237 we read, in fact, that the men of the village gathered “to the sound of the bell” to make the “Constitution” of their country together with Guido Palmieri.
During the fourteenth century the castle suffered various devastations as a result of war actions: in 1313 by the troops of Arrigo VII of Luxembourg when he marched against Siena and in 1333 by the Pisan troops during the war between Siena and Pisa. The castle was later restored in 1365 and another restoration is documented in 1479.
The wars and raids that continued to happen at the end of the fourteenth century, however, led to the definitive decline of the flourishing municipality of Sovicille and its territory.
On the ruins of the ancient castle of Sovicille, of which it incorporates part of the walls, stands the current eighteenth-century building characterized by a T-shaped plan with a central body attested on the walls of which it follows the curvilinear trend and an elongated body dating back to to the central square of the town.
The downstream façade of the building is characterized by the spectacular play of the access stairs to the park, particularly articulated and elegant, while the main entrance on the town square consists of a loggia with arches and classical pilasters dating back to the second mid 16th century
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