The Park of Medici Fortress of Poggio Imperiale is located on the hill overlooking Poggibonsi, surrounded by massive walls: the area of about 12 hectares preserves the legacy of the town’s origins.
Archaeological excavations have been carried out systematically for over 15 years, showing traces of a distant past, mostly unknown to written sources. Accurate scientific investigations allowed to reassemble the site’s evolution and its material evidence from the Late Roman period to the Renaissance, forming an extraordinary example of the long formation process of landscapes and human settlements in central Tuscany:
-a rustic/country villa from the fifth and sixth centuries,
– a village of timber houses starting with the first Longobard Period, a Carolingian curtis, a castle from the mid 12th century later destroyed by the Florentines at the end of the 13th century, the “unfulfilled” dream of emperor Henry VII
– The fortress of PoggIo Imperiale (1472-mId 16th century). This military architectural gem was commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent in order to strengthen the southern borders of the Florentine state. The
monument was never used for its original purposes, due to the progressive annexation of the
Sienese territory by Florence. Its design and realisation represents a laboratory of architectural
experimentation, linked to the early introduction of gunfire in Renaissance war strategies.