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San Giovanni d’Asso

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Inhabitants in 1991: 938

The municipal territory of San Giovanni d’Asso extends for 66,36 square kilometres between the plain and the hills of the Val d’Asso. Feudal territory, Community Seat from 1777, it reached its present day aspect in 1877 with the aggregation of the district of Montisi detached from the municipality of Trequanda.

The San Giovanni d’Asso castle (which takes its name from its parish church of Longobarda origins) was feudal in the middle of the XII century to Count Paltonieri di Forteguerra who in 1151 pawned it to the Siena municipality. Its history is a dense succession of dominations by diverse Lordly families: from Viscount Ugolino Scolari, who in 1178 submitted it to the Siena sovereignty, to the Ardengheschi di Civitella. In 1256 the Buonsignore acquired the castle’s jurisdiction which then passed to the Salimbeni (from the start of the XIV century) and to the Petroni: in fact from the second half of the 1200s the landed property of the citizens was dominant in the whole of its territory. Only in the middle of the 1400s did Siena place San Giovanni, who had been in the orbit of their political dominion for centuries, under its own direct administration. In the municipal territory the district of Montisi had a notable history as fortified centre first feudal to the Scialenghi Cacciaconti (XII century) then, at least from the second half of the XIII century, as a Castrense (walled centre) Municipal, from 1295 property of the Spedale della Scala who organised it as a Grange.

Places to visit:
The Castle, constructed in 1200 and dominates the ancient little village. There are several works of art conserved there among which a 1400 fireplace and laundry.

Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford


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