Rocca Ricciarda Village

One of the most beautiful places in Tuscany!

Today's village of Rocca Ricciarda stands on a spur of rock near the sources of the Ciuffenna stream. The position makes it a natural fortress on which stood the old fortress that gives it its name.
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The name of Rocca Ricciarda derives from that of Guicciardo da Loro who is probable to be the founder and first owner.
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The church of San Niccolò, which looks like a stone building with a rectangular plan like others in the area, is not mentioned in the ancient sources, even if it cannot be excluded that it is, like others, planted on a pre-existing chapel, which exist in the castle, given the distance that separated it from the closest churches. At Rocca Ricciarda the old cemetery was located at the end of the village, on top of the rocky spur overlooking the Ciuffenna valley and the corpses were thrown into natural fissures in the rock, on which, subsequently, lime was thrown and the whole closed by two heavy manhole covers. In the eighteenth century, in that place, a small masonry building was built, similar to a temple, which incorporated the access points to the two fissures.The carriage road arrived only in 1973 so until that date, the resident population (some families) used paths to come and go from the town and moved on foot or with mules.(Source: caivaldarnosuperiore.it/il-castello-di-rocca-ricciarda )

An enchanting village nestled on a rock nestled in the mountains just below the Pratomagno