Patron saint festival In 114 days
Feast of Saint Agatha
📅 Every year, on 5 February
On 5 February Radicofani celebrates its patroness Saint Agatha; among the year's events are the «I giorni di Ghino» festival and the palio del bigonzo.
Radicofani stands on the top of a hill in the Val d'Orcia, and its fortress occupies the highest point, at 896 metres: two rings of walls, the outer one pentagonal and the inner one triangular, with a keep that can still be visited. The castle is documented from the tenth century, but the name that has stuck to it is that of Ghino di Tacco, the outlaw who seized it in 1290 and made it his base; the village devotes a festival to him every August.
In 1846 Charles Dickens, who had passed this way, set down his impressions of the village in «Pictures from Italy». The municipal arms bear the silver lion on a red field, the badge of the Captain of the People, holding between its paws the black and white balzana of Siena. The territory also includes Contignano, long a castle in its own right: in 1409 its inhabitants drove out the lord who ruled there and the Sienese Republic rewarded them with self-government, which lasted until 1778, when the grand-ducal law abolishing the smaller communes placed it under Radicofani.
The Radicofani guide
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Radicofani 1
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🍝 The flavours of Radicofani
Panforte di Siena sweet of almonds, candied fruit, honey and spices pressed into a disc
Almonds, candied fruit, flour, honey and spices pressed into a low disc: Siena's panforte has a recipe documented since 1205.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Radicofani
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Radicofani, but an easy day trip away.
Palazzo Ducale e Galleria Nazionale delle Marche 📍 Urbino · 9.3 km Federico's studiolo, 3.60 by 3.35 metres of inlay, and Piero della Francesca's Flagellation. Duomo di Urbino 📍 Urbino · 9.2 km The cathedral rebuilt by Valadier after the earthquakes, beside Federico da Montefeltro's Ducal Palace. Casa Santi 📍 Urbino · 9.0 km The house where Raphael was born in 1483, his father's workshop on the ground floor. Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista e Sant'Antonio abate 📍 Urbino · 9.2 km Urbino's oratory with the Salimbeni frescoes, a late gothic masterpiece. pieve di San Salvatore 📍 Rimini · 21 km Pieve di San Salvatore in Rimini, a Romanesque church on an ancient temple, with a plaque from 1318. Villa Caprile 📍 Pesaro · 23 km Seventeenth-century Baroque villa above Pesaro with an Italian garden and water games still working.