Montauto Giuseppi Asciano

The few information on this pleasant place, which is encountered along the suggestive white road that from the surroundings of Asciano reaches the Cassia in Val d'Arbia near Lucignano, must be noted from the nineteenth-century "Geographical Physical Historical Dictionary of Tuscany" by Emanuele Repetti, monumental and praiseworthy work to trace memories of places that otherwise, as in this case, would have risked being irreparably lost. Repetti therefore writes: "Montaguto or Montauto Giuseppi in Val d'Arbia. - Farmhouse with parish church (S. Andrea a Montauto) to which the chapel of S. Bartolomeo del Casal de 'Frati is annexed, in the vicariate foranea of ​​Buonconvento, Community Jurisdiction and Tuscan 5 miles south-west of Asciano, Diocese and Compartment of Siena, on a humble hill of cerulean shell marl, under which the Arbia river flows from the master side and the Ombrone river from the scirocco side. Tuscan miles to Ostro-Scirocco of Siena and 5 Tuscan miles to the north of Buonconvento. The parish of S. Andrea in Montauto in 1833 had 312 inhabitants ". So far Repetti: the description, as usual, is very precise and provided with an indication of the distances. It must be added that in the Middle Ages it was an autonomous fortified Comunello and it remained until about the middle of the eighteenth century and then it was incorporated in the Municipality of Asciano.
Currently transformed into the villa and home of a well-known German political figure, Otto Schiller, it has become private property. You can only admire its beauty on the landscape level because it is fenced and therefore unreachable. You can only coast, because the aforementioned white road partially crosses the avenue of cypresses which continues, beyond a gate, to lead to the heart of what was once a public place. It is not at all easy to find current news, as happens in other places in the Crete Senesi that have been purchased by private individuals and serve, however, in their own right, as their residence, or hermitage, or "buen retiro". The name of the place seems to be attributable to the noble Sienese Giuseppi family, owner of several castles in the feudal age and, perhaps, also of this locality.

To access the map of the defensive sighting network, of which Montauto was an important node, click here.