Cavriglia

From the castle of Pianfranzese came the Franzesi, small nobles of the Valdarno, perhaps vassals of the Ubertini. Two of them, Biccio and Musciatto, went to France and founded there a merchant company that ended by financing the crown: in Paris, in the rue des Bourdonnais — which still exists, near the Louvre — they had a palace built that people called the Hotel des Sir Biche ed Mouche, from their two nicknames, and they became counsellors of Philip the Fair. Behind them, at home, there was the usual chain of castles and lords: the Guidi at Montaio, a Ghibelline stronghold until Florence took it; the Ricasoli at Montegonzi and at Montedomenichi, which Florence bought in 1314 to make a strongpoint of it. And along the old Roman road that crossed the Chianti hills one can still make out a line of pievi — Petrolo, San Giovanni, San Pancrazio, Gaville — because the churches served as waymarks.

On 4 July 1944 the hamlets of Meleto Valdarno, Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni, Massa dei Sabbioni and San Martino were the scene of a massacre: a hundred and ninety-one civilians killed by the paratroopers of a German armoured corps and by a company specialised in hunting partisan bands. For this Cavriglia carries the bronze medal for military valour. At Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni, whose old village is abandoned today, there are a great mural by Venturino Venturi in memory of the victims and a museum of the lignite mines that were worked here. The comune itself is Napoleonic: it was born in 1809, when the council met for the first time and took in the «popoli» of Montaio, Montegonzi, Castelnuovo and Meleto, which had before belonged to the Lega d'Avane — one of those confederations of small villages with which Florence had organised its countryside, and which lasted until 1774. A short way out of the town there is a rose garden, unique in the world, where thousands of varieties are grown.