Volpaia site features

The colour is the first thing, and it is not the Chianti's usual colour. Because of nearby sandstone quarries — worked until a few years ago — the castle is built predominantly of that stone, and it gives Volpaia a brown-gold aspect, unusual in the Chianti, where even in fortifications the sunny pallor of alberese prevails.

What survives of the fortification. The castle was formed by a wall circuit on a roughly elliptical plan with defensive towers set along it; the largest of these, beside the entrance gate, must have served as the keep. Today there remain some stretches of the original walls, the powerful main tower on a rectangular plan, and one of the lesser towers.

One tower is later, and the masonry proves it. A cylindrical turret on the north side is an addition: its masonry is a sasso accapezzato, different from the filaretto of the older parts. It was probably built after the Aragonese destructions of 1478, since from the second half of the fifteenth century round towers were often built, being better suited to withstanding the new artillery.

A street ran through the middle. One road crossed the castle internally along its longer axis, dividing it into two almost equal parts; the entrance gate opened at the start of that main street, and has now disappeared through the alterations the whole south-west sector of the walls has suffered — though it is still shown in the drawings of a cabreo of 1801.

Peace unbuilt the castle. With the fall of the Sienese republic in 1555 a long period of peace began for the Chianti and Volpaia, its original defensive function gone, gradually lost its warlike aspect too: late-Renaissance doorways opening into dwellings inside the castle record the change, which brought the disappearance of long stretches of wall and the building of houses.

Two buildings inside are worth finding. Halfway along the internal street is the Ospedaletto dei Cavalieri di Malta, built around 1400 to give hospitality and care to pilgrims, with a large sandstone lintel incised with the Maltese Cross; and the old church of San Lorenzo, recognisable by a now-walled circular oculus in its facade and a pointed archivolt above a very plain portal.

The revolt of 1478

The story Volpaia is for. On 24 December 1477 Siena and Ferdinand of Naples allied against Florence; Pope Sixtus IV joined, angry with the Medici over the Pazzi conspiracy. In July 1478 the allied army attacked from the Val di Staggia, besieged and took Rencine, and in August seized the main Chianti strongholds including Volpaia — which, under the League's third and sixth articles, should then have belonged to Siena. August was not over before Volpaia rebelled, drove out the garrison and took the Sienese commissioner Cipriano prisoner to Florence. The allies came back with Federico, son of the king of Naples, and stormed the castle again on 2 September; the Florentines retook it on 7 October.

Sandstone, and the colour it makes

Quarries nearby — worked until recent years — mean Volpaia is built predominantly of arenaria, giving it a brown-gold cast that is unusual in the Chianti, where alberese's white-gold prevails even in castles. The oldest walls are in perfect filaretto, which is what allows the fortification to be dated to the first half of the twelfth century.

A round tower built against artillery

The cylindrical turret on the north side is later work in a different masonry, probably post-1478: from the second half of the fifteenth century round towers were preferred because they stood up better to the new guns.

The Ospedaletto dei Cavalieri di Malta

Built around 1400 at the centre of the castle, giving hospitality and care to pilgrims — Volpaia sat on the road linking the upper Pesa valley with the Valdarno Superiore. On a window lintel is a large sandstone block incised with the Cross of Malta; inside are brick arches and walls of large stones laid in filaretto. It now serves as a cellar.

The old church of San Lorenzo

Within the walls, recognisable by a circular oculus now walled up and a pointed archivolt over a very plain portal. Rectangular, single-naved, roofed with exposed trusses. It could date to the fourteenth century, or have been built in the second half of the Quattrocento after the Aragonese destructions on the remains of an earlier Romanesque chapel — its right flank, which coincides with a stretch of the wall circuit, is not faced in sandstone filaretto like the older parts but shows irregular masonry mixing well-dressed white alberese with sandstone fragments. One of the castle's surviving towers served it as a bell tower.

And the Commenda

Facing the castle's ancient gate on a picturesque little square stands the Commenda di Sant'Eufrosino, built 1443–1460, declared a National Monument in 1982, and described as the most important episode of Renaissance architecture in the Chianti. Its facade is reproduced on the label of Volpaia's Chianti Classico.