A Sunday devoted to the discovery of Artimino

• … and they used to rinse clothes in the Ombrone
• After September 8th 1943
• Between the twenties and thirties
• Corrado Capecchi, military internee
  • A medal (at last) for Corrado
  • The joke of the military internees
• Five places of Romanesque Carmignano
• Friar Bocci, at the beginning of the twentieth century
• From archaeologists to farmers
• Gino Balena
• Gino di Fico
• Historical shops in Carmignano
• In the name of Jesus and Saint Peter, may the sty go away
• Liberation day
• Matteucci, the ‘forgotten’ bishop
• Soldier in Greece
• Stories from a school notebook
• Stories of donkeys and jockeys
• Stories of mayors and town councils in Carmignano
• Stories of our home
• Stories of war and displaced persons
• The Battistina and other scary stories
• The colours of the rioni
• The Golden Roster
• The last sharecropper in Carmignano
• The siege in memory of the Princess
• The tree of liberty in Carmignano
• Ugo Contini Bonacossi
• Vittorio’s bicycles
• When the river Arno was fordable ..
• When they were digging pietra serena between Arno and Ombrone
• The colours of Carmignano, a small guide for tourists
  • Ancient churches and abbeys. Montalbano, a crossroads for pilgrims.
    • San Giusto al Pinone
    • San Jacopo in Capezzana
    • San Leonardo in Artimino
    • San Lorenzo in Montalbiolo
    • San Martino in Campo
    • San Michele amarcord
      • San Michele, the theater takes to the streets
• Itineraries for just a few days or more
  • Walking through history and nature
  • A Sunday devoted to the discovery of Artimino
  • A few words about the hamlets of Carmignano
  • The Fontina and Castagnati Lake
• Guides to download

a thorough examination of the ancient village of Artimino, the jewel of the Carmignano area and due to its rich artistic heritage, history, and landscape, one of the most popular destinations in the province of Prato. Artimino is now a small cluster of houses with only two hundred inhabitants. It sits on a hill and overlooks a stunning landscape just opposite the Medici villa of a hundred chimneys built by the Grand Duke Ferdinando I at the end of the 1500s.
For the nineteenth century historian Emanuele Repetti, the name Artimino is derived from the Latin “arctus minor”, that is, the lesser strait along the course of the Arno with respect to the other Gonfolina strait, which is broader and more extensive. Already inhabited in Etruscan and Roman times, the first document in which Artimino is mentioned is a privilege of the 25th of February, 998 when Otto III gave it, along with other possessions, to Antonio, the bishop of Pistoia.
The existence of the castle of Artimino, the remains of which are still visible, has been documented since 1026 and, given its strategic location, was a very important fort for the town of Pistoia. The turreted tower (now a clock tower), which characterizes the entrance to the town centre, is of the same era. In 1204, the Florentine Republic momentarily removed Artimino, which was then an independent community of “distictus”, from the Pistoian orbit of influence. Having reconquered it in 1219, the people of Pistoia lost it again in 1225, when the Florentines took the “Curtem Carmignanam” away from the Bishop Hildebrand. In 1226, the powerful family Fabbroni, already owners of the castle of Signa, took possession of the castle Artimino. In 1228, the castle of Artimino was again besieged and conquered by the Florentines and since then has gravitated in the orbit of nearby Carmignano which shared the same fate during the wars between Florence and Pistoia. Re-walled and fortified by Castruccio Castracani, the castle was again besieged and conquered by the Florentines in 1327. This conflict was settled with the peace treaty of 1329, which established a half Guelph and half Ghibelline government. During the Renaissance, it became property of the Medici, together with the nearby estate and hunting lodge. In 1559, Cosimo I ordered the reformation of special statutes.
An agricultural village of considerable importance under dynasties such as that of the Lorraine, as it was located within a protected hunting territory, the village of Artimino still retains an almost intact medieval layout. Clear signs of this are the clock tower with battlements, the existing external walls, the concentric street plan and the narrow streets studded with various souvenir shops and gastronomic delights which make for a cheerful and pleasant walk.

The parish church of San Leonardo
In the highest part of the village is a former oratory whose stone portal reveals its fifteenth century origins. This is probably the former church of San Lorenzo (1383). To the left of the oratory is the farm of Artimino, with structures from the early fourteenth century. Not far from the heart of the village, on the crest of the hill, emerging from a green and lush vegetation, is the parish church of San Leonardo, surely contemporary to the village if not older (it also is cited in the Imperial Diploma of 998 A.D.). The church is a rare example of a pre-Romanesque building. Initially dedicated to Mary, the name of Leonardo appears in 1553.
Medici Villa “La Ferdinanda”, nicknamed the villa of a hundred chimneys In the village of Artimino a beautiful tree-lined street ends at the turreted door of the magnificent Medici Villa “La Ferdinanda”. The imposing building was built by Grand Duke Ferdinando I de ‘Medici, who was fond of hunting and good wine. It was designed in 1596 by the court architect Bernardo Buontalenti. However, it seems that the artist, who was already old and sick at the time, did not directly participate in overseeing work on the villa which was completed in just four years (from 1596 to 1600). Simple and elegant, the building is commonly known as “the villa of a hundred chimneys” for the rich set of diversely shaped chimneys which characterize it.
Surrounded by lush gardens, it is unfortunately not open to visitors as it is
part of the Paggeria Medici Hotel. From 1983 to 2010, it hosted the Municipal Archaeological Museum in two of its underground halls. Here, Etruscan finds from the excavation of the nearby Etruscan necropolis and settlements were exhibited. In 2011, the museum was then moved to a larger premises at the entrance of the village, in what was the old wine cellar of the farm. Remains of ancient buildings, perhaps a sacred area, are visible behind the Piaggeria Medici building, which was itself also designed by Buontalenti. Already in the seventeenth century it was referred to as “de’ corridoi”. It is adjacent to the park of the villa and is now home to an elegant hotel. From the hill that slopes from the villa towards the Arno, one can see the vast cemetery of Montalbano and the Etruscan necropolis of Prato Rosello. In this area, a dozen mounds with graves , mostly from the seventh century B.C., have been identified. The area that shows the Etruscan past of the region expands to nearby Comeana. Unfortunately, the Etruscan tombs of Prato Rosello are not yet entirely visible, except on rare occasions. (Wf)