Top 5 Castles around Empoli

The small village of Malmantile has one of the best preserved examples of medieval city walls in Tuscany. Its origins are unknown, it was essentially a military center located along the ancient and very important road that connected Florence to Pisa and only later became an inhabited center. Legend has it that the episode that gave rise to its name dates back to the 4th century! St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, was traveling towards central Italy while St. Zanobi, bishop of Florence, was in the area. The two met where the commemorative tabernacle of the meeting stands and stayed for a few days to talk in a farmhouse. Upon leaving, St. Ambrose was so dissatisfied with the welcome he received from the locals that he cursed the place so much that the farmhouse sank into a crevasse. Once word of what had happened spread, the town was called 'Malmantile', which literally meant 'bad tablecloth' but in a broader sense 'bad reception'. The late Gothic walls of the town date back to 1424 and are one of the first examples of a wall equipped with a projecting device, the most used type in Tuscany for the entire following century. It seems that Brunelleschi also supervised their construction. The walls have a layout of 125x70 meters and form an almost perfect rectangle, oriented with the longer sides to the north-west and south-east and with the short ones, in the center of which are the two gates, joined by the single road axis, to the north-east and south-west. Although the entire perimeter of the loose stone wall is preserved, little remains of the projecting defensive device. This is made up of stone corbels of the type with four rounded projections to support the slightly pointed brick arches. Compared to the nearby circle of Lastra a Signa, here there are, in alternating arches, the machicolations for the plunging defense. The wall is completed by square towers placed at the four corners plus two other towers, without an internal front, placed at the center of the longer sides, the largest of which is the one on the north-west side, the one facing the external road and also the best preserved as it is completely free from overlapping of subsequent buildings. The two gates, both with round arches, are obtained by projecting a section of the walls themselves outwards and equipped with a series of slits on both sides. The one towards Florence is currently in need of restoration with the arch at risk of collapse. To the west of the gate facing Pisa (southwest) we find the only still intact section of the projecting apparatus, crowned by a parapet made of finer stone than that of the walls. Along the entire perimeter the escarpment joins the upper part plumb without a roundabout. To the south of the gate and along the walls they are in some places pierced by the windows of the houses leaning against them. The north-west side is internally free from buildings but partially covered by buildings built externally.

The Rocca or Castle of Carmignano has dominated the village from above for over a thousand years: the bastion was in fact mentioned for the first time in the year 998, in a document by Otto III of Saxony which granted ownership to the bishop of Pistoia. The Rocca was the object of continuous battles between Pistoia, Florence and Prato, due to its strategic position in the political-military context of the Middle Ages: from up here, in fact, you can admire the entire plain between the three cities. After having resisted, in 1154, a siege conducted by troops from Prato and Florence, the castle was destroyed for the first time in 1228 by the Florentines. Having regained possession of Pistoia in 1242, the fortification was rebuilt and in the early fourteenth century sold again to Florence, which proceeded to demolish the fortress and the castle walls once again. After a new parenthesis in Pistoia (1315-1324) the castle returned to Florentine hands, only to be besieged and conquered by Castruccio Castracani, who made it his own stronghold until 1328, when it finally returned to Florence. The Rocca di Carmignano can be accessed via a pedestrian path (starting from the church of San Michele, where Pontormo's famous Visitation is kept) that climbs the hill full of olive trees, where you can enjoy a beautiful view of Montalbano. Few remains of the medieval walls around the Rocca remain, partly rebuilt as the Campano, with the bell tower and clock, while in the center stands a medieval tower, called the Maschio della Rocca. (www.visittuscany.com)

San Miniato, city of good cuisine and white truffles, looks from a hill over the plain through which the Arno flows. The monumental palaces prove its grandeur, but all its charm lies in two esplanades formed by the unexpected Prato del Duomo and the square in front of the castle of Emperor Frederick II. The name San Miniato was previously followed by 'al Tedesco' (from the German.), because the city was the Tuscan residence of the German emperors from the 10th century.

Already in the dominions of the Acciaioli family and now owned by the Posarelli family, the castle of Montegufoni is known because, during the bombings suffered by Florence in the Second World War, some works of art were hidden there, including the Adoration of the Magi of Ghirlandaio and Botticelli's Spring.

La Rocca above The village of Carmignano is worth a visit and not just for the view. From this fortress there were two arms that the Pistoiesi had placed and that "made the figs" towards Florence. For more information, consult the Divine Comedy.

Ancient village with a rich historic center worthy of a visit. The capital of the Tuscan truffle

It is the Roccadi Carmignano

Malmantile with its fortress is worth a visit.