Inhabitants in 1991: 1.105
The
municipal territory of San Godenzo extends for 99,19 square kilometres
in the Val di Sieve in an evocative mountainous zone, on the borders
of Romagna. Ancient feudal dominion, it was decreed Podesta
Office at the beginning of the modern era. San Godenzo took its name and
perhaps its origins from an Abbey dedicated to San Gaudenzio monk,
donated by the Bishop of Fiesole Iacopo Bavaro to the Benedettini in 1029.
The territory was feudal dominion of the Counts Guidi da Porciano,
and as this it was confirmed by a certificate of the Emperor Arrigo VI
(1191); belonging to a feudal branch of the Imperial line made it, at
the beginning of the XIV century, a centre for meeting and conspiring
by the Ghibellina and Bianca parties against the Firenze Guelfa and Nera.
In
1344 the Count Alberto da Porciano, at peace with the Fiorentini, sold
to the republic the castles of San Godenzo and San Bavello with their
districts and since then they have always been a part of the Firenze
county.
Raised to Podesta Office at the beginning of the XVI Century, stopping
place on one of the difficult roads, which in the Grand Duchy era led
to Romagna, received new thrusts when in 1836 the new carriageble road
was consummated in the Muraglione pass. It suffered very badly
in the course of the second world war finding itself right on the Gothic
Line, when most of the town (with the exception of the Abbey sector)
and the nearby districts were mined. In the district of Castagno the artist
Andrea del Castagno was born in 1423.
Places to visit: S. Godendo, Benedictine Abbey
named for the hermit Saint, was founded in 1029, and had several changes
during the centuries, the most drastic was in 1921 by Ezio Cerpi.
It has a three nave interior and holds diverse works of art mostly
from the 1500s. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of
Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e
Giuridici
Picture by Antonio Barletti
Translated by Ann Mountford
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