Oratory of Madonna delle Grazie

About two kilometers from Loro Ciuffenna (Ar) is the detour that leads to the small village of Montemarciano. Located in the municipality of Terranuova Bracciolini (Ar) and just four hundred meters from the Church of the Madonna delle Grazie which is located on the Setteponti road.
The entrance to the village is marked by the Porta Campana. An ancient medieval gate still intact that in the thirteenth century protected this small castle, enclosed on a spur of rock above the fantastic landscape of the Balze del Valdarno. In fact, Montemarciano is also the starting point for many excursions to the famous Buca delle Fate.
The internal side of the Porta Campana still has the stairs that lead to what used to be the patrol walkway. From here you have a beautiful view of the main road which was built only in 1918 to go down to Strada delle Cave. Previously, however, it was reached through another access door, called Arco Etrusco, and located in the southern area of the village.
In the Middle Ages Montemarciano was also famous for its two hospitals for pilgrims who passed through the Cassia Vetus. In the 14th century this ancient institution was transferred to the village of Renacci, in the municipality of San Giovanni Valdarno (Ar).
Entering this small village you get the feeling that life goes by more slowly. In the summer, the balconies adorned with flowers give the visitor an atmosphere of yesteryear, enriched by the lovely views of the alleys.

SANDRO FABRIZI - MY BEAUTIFUL TUSCANY

The name most likely derives from the Latin Mons Marcii, that is the place of the Gens Marcia. In the Middle Ages Montemarciano, like Poggitazzi, Piantravigne, Persignano and Montalto was part of a system of Ghibelline castles under the power of the Pazzi family to defend the Setteponti road which, since ancient times, represented one of the most important arteries between Arezzo and Fiesole, therefore from Florence and the north and Rome. Image143 These castles, located on the ribs and gullies of the "Balze" were connected to the main artery by short diverticula and, on the other side, to the Arno plain. This whole system of castles was invested by the power of Florence which, at the turn of the 1300s, with numerous and repeated attacks, reduced it to its power. Montemarciano, where there was also a "Spedale" under the dependence of the Abbey of Santa Mama near San Giovanni, was occupied by the Florentines in 1288. After having destroyed the castle, the Florentines rebuilt it starting from 1313, no longer in the shape of a merged as it was previously but, similarly to the design of the "terre nove" ", with a central square and an orthogonal system of streets, in short, with a checkerboard plan that has come down to our days. From the two original churches, one of San Michele of evident Lombard and Arian legacy, and one of Sant'Apollinare of evident Byzantine extraction which indicate a very permeable history and boundary that inevitably reveals the depth of our history, only one remained. , the one that even today can be seen dedicated to Santa Lucia and Sant'Apollinare. It is in this period of first Florentine expansion that the patrician families of the city settle and tend to appropriate large estates, as in the case of Montemarciano i Rinuccini who undertook a vast program of acquisitions of farms and buildings in the country. Later, towards the 15th century, the community of Montemarciano, which was included in the so-called "third of Loro" within the podesteria of Terranuova, also had its municipal council, complete with a "rector" to be appointed every six months , and followed its own statutory rules. From the seventeenth century it followed the fate of the Municipality of Loro Ciuffenna.

FROM THE SITE caivaldarnosupreste.it/il-castello-di-montemarciano

Ancient medieval village with its characteristic bell gate.