Chitignano

It is the smallest comune in the Casentino, and its boundaries are still those of a rural lordship that lasted from the Middle Ages until the end of the eighteenth century. The imperial county of Chitignano was granted to the Ubertini of Arezzo in the tenth century and was never annexed to Florence: in 1384 it merely placed itself under Florentine protection, remaining a fief exempt from taxes. That deed was signed not by the lords, who were two children, but by their grandmother and guardian, Franceschina di Castel Focognano, who undertook to have her grandsons ratify it once they were grown.

In 1419 the elder of the two, now of age, gathered the heads of households before the gate of the keep and granted them the right to leave their movable goods by will even without male heirs, in exchange for loyalty and for arms in time of war. Later the village lived on gunpowder and smuggling, and a museum tells the story: after the war the people of Chitignano were still crossing the mountains with tobacco and cigars to avoid the revenue guards. At the plebiscite of 1860 the yes votes for annexation were fifty-five out of 314 entitled electors.