The name says huts. Capannule, as it appears in 839, comes from capanna in the sense of a hovel, and stands in line with Capannole, Capannori and the other Tuscan names from the same root: a village named after the poorest kind of building. And yet the highest point of the village is still called Castello, and in 1420 Florence issued special statutes for the conservation and repair of its walls. The borgo had grown under the Della Gherardesca counts, around the castle they had raised; on 14 June 1099 countess Matilda of Canossa had part of it ceded to Rangerio, bishop of Lucca, but by the end of the 12th century Ugolino III had brought the Della Gherardesca back in command. Then came the Gambacorti and the Pisan Republic, and in 1406 Florence.
On the site of that first nucleus stands today the villa Bourbon del Monte-Baciocchi, late Baroque and neoclassical, entirely rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century. In 1833 it was bought by count Felice Baciocchi, husband of Elisa Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister; today it belongs to the comune. Santo Pietro and Solaia were territories of their own until the communal reform of 1776, when they entered the community of Capannoli: the church of Santo Pietro Belvedere is cited from 1260, was given the title of pieve in 1680 and that of propositura in 1720. In the oratory of San Rocco a detached fresco is kept, a Madonna and Child attributed to the school of Benozzo Gozzoli.
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📅 Every year, on 24 August; the second Sunday of September brings the National Bird Fair
Capannoli celebrates Saint Bartholomew on 24 August, in the abbey church dedicated to him. On the second Sunday of September, the National Bird Fair is held, while 2 May is the kite festival at the Valdera airfield.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Capannoli, but an easy day trip away.
