Rocca di Monte Voltraio

Exciting tour

Beautiful ruin with a view

Monte Voltraio was a "rural commune", that is to say a municipality whose population, in addition to living in the village attached to the castle, resided in other castles, villas and estates of its territory. The first written news of this Commune is in a "placito" held on 12 June 967 in the house of the bishop Pietro by the marquis Oberto, count of the castle, in the presence of Otto I of Saxony, of several bishops, judges and magnates. Perennially contested between the Municipalities of Volterra and San Gimignano, in 1252 the Montevoltrais were freely subjected to the Municipality of Volterra to then be occupied by the Sienese in 1336. Shortly afterwards the noble Volterran Pietro Belforti attacked the fortress becoming its master. In 1375 his heirs sold Monte Voltraio to Florence, which returned it to the Volterrani provided they completely dismantled the walls. Without protection, the castle became the object of continuous raids by brigands, so much so that it was definitively abandoned in 1433. Nowadays only a few traces of this mighty municipality remain placed substantially on the summit of the mountain. The exception is the "balco" (a wall about 4 meters thick and 56 meters long built over a wide slope from which it dominates a vast panorama) and the basement of what could have been a tower. For the rest, they are only little walls scattered here and there hidden by vegetation. On the land of Monte Voltraio two legends have been handed down to us: the first would like this hill to hide a hen with twelve chicks all of them golden, the second would involve three sisters - one from Monte Voltraio, the other from Rocca Silano and the third of Rocca Pietra Cassa (peaks of visible hills between them) - which, to remedy the impossibility of seeing each other due to the rivalry existing between their families, used to exchange their greetings every evening and at the same time by means of a lamp that each of them waved from the highest tower of the castle.

The first news of the fortification dates back to 967 belonging to the bishop of Volterra. After the first half of the 13th century, the castle became the subject of disputes with the municipality of Volterra which attacked it in 1218, taking over the domain in 1252. In the 14th century it was conquered by the Florentine and in 1427 it was returned to the Volterra who claimed ownership, on condition that it was dismantled, it was finally irreparably damaged in 1433 by the gangs following Niccolò Piccinino.