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Towns of the area

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San Godenzo

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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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