Prato Area The Medici Municipalities of the Prato Area Poggio a Caiano and Carmignano www.pratoturismo.it ENG The Medici Municipalities of the Prato Area POGGIO A CAIANO AND CARMIGNANO Poggio a Caiano and Carmignano are the Medici heart of the Prato area and a destination for unforgettable holidays in the name of art, culture and well-being. Those who visit these places, lying on splendid hil- ls spread of vineyards and olive groves, will discover the heart of Tuscany where Lorenzo de’Medici and the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando I built, in the period of greatest splendor of the Florentine family, two splendid villas, today UNESCO heritage. In this 2 idyllic Tuscan countryside, you can visit and admire Medici villas, museums, Romanesque churches and Etruscan sites; you can cycle up and down the hills or walk the Medici Route. Stops are a must and not only for a proper rest but also to enjoy the excellent Car- mignano DOCG wines, Vin Santo with biscuits, dried figs and many other delicacies in the numerous re- staurants and farmhouses. So, have a good holiday in the Prato side of Montalbano! 3 THE MEDICI MUNICIPALITIES PRATO AREA Poggio a Caiano oggio a Caiano extends fame to the Still Life Museum whi- over the last foothills ch has been opened inside it since of Montalbano towards 2007. Attached to the Villa are the the Prato plain. It is an Medici Stables which, in addition to important crossroads being a multipurpose space, house on the edge of the plain between Flo- the Ardengo Soffici and Italian 20th rence, Prato and Pistoia both for its century Museum. Although Poggio a strategic position and for the presen- Caiano developed mainly around the ce of the superb Medici Villa, Unesco hill where the Medici Villa stands, heritage, which with its beauty and there are other hamlets in the sur- its history makes this small town a roundings: Santa Cristina in Pilli, real gem. To connect the Grand Ducal Bonistallo and Poggetto. possessions, the Medici Villa of Pog- gio a Caiano with the Cascine Me- dicee park divided by the Ombrone River, in 1833 the Leopoldo II Bridge was built by the architect Alessan- dro Manetti, one of the first rope su- spension bridges built in Italy. The bridge blown up in 1944 by the retre- ating German army, was inaugurated in 2019 after a meticulous and care- ful restoration and is now accessible on foot and by bycicle. In addition to the Villa, the municipality owes its 4 mat in Paris, counselor of the king in Filippo Mazzei Warsaw and friend of the first five (1730–1816) presidents of the United States. Fi- lippo Mazzei has held multiple roles Doctor, philosopher, diplomat and and experienced two revolutions, the essayist, was born in Poggio a Ca- American and the French one, pro- iano, but he was a “Citizen of the moting not only the ideas and values World”. A man with many lives who of the Enlightenment but also what lived in ten countries on three diffe- will be known as ‘Made in Italy’. Due rent continents: surgeon in Florence, to Mazzei’s contribution to Ameri- Constantinople and Smyrna, mer- can independence, Poggio a Caiano is chant in London, farmer and liberal twinned with the town of Charlotte- activist in Virginia, writer and diplo- sville in Virginia (U.S.A.) since 1977. 5 THE MEDICI MUNICIPALITIES PRATO AREA Carmignano t covers an area of seum in Artimino. Carmignano is 38.59 sq km among the therefore a charming area, full of gentle hills of the Pra- surprises and able to offer various to side of Montalbano. opportunities for visits: imposing In addition to the chief villas among which the Medici Villa town Carmignano, there are seve- La Ferdinanda in Artimino, Unesco ral and important hamlets: Artimi- heritage, ancient churches such as no, Bacchereto, Comeana, La Serra, that of SS. Francesco and Michele Poggio alla Malva, Santa Cristina in Carmignano, which hosts the be- a Mezzana, Seano and Verghereto. autiful Visitation by Pontormo, the Inhabited by man since the Paleoli- Parish Church of San Leonardo in thic (about 20,000 BC) it was from Artimino, the Abbey of San Giusto al the 7th to the 1st century BC seat Pinone. In Seano, we find one of the of the important Etruscan center most prestigious outdoor sculptural of Artimino and of other connected complexes in Europe dedicated to settlements, of which splendid ar- a single author: the Quinto Martini chaeological monuments remain: Museum Park. The local trattorias the orientalizing Tumulus of Mon- allow you to rediscover the ancient tefortini and Boschetti in Comea- flavors of traditional cuisine and the na (8th century BC), the necropolis many wine bars and farms to taste of Prato Rosello in Artimino (6th the excellent wine of the area, with century BC) and the archaeological the opportunity to read up on the area of Pietramarina. The finds of history and production of the pre- these areas are kept in the “Fran- stigious Carmignano wine at the cesco Nicosia” Archaeological Mu- Museum of the Vine and Wine. 6 The Visitation meeting between Mary and Elizabeth by Pontormo who, wrapped in large cloaks appear as if raised on tiptoe. The two impo- It is located in the Parish church of SS. sing figures are “duplicated” by two Michele and Francesco in Carmigna- other female figures, seen from the no and is one of the highest master- front, with a motionless and absent pieces by Jacopo Carucci known as gaze, witnesses of the prodigious Pontormo, born in Pontorme (Em- event. On the left of the painting two poli) in 1494. The Visitation, which other small figures, perhaps St. Jose- dates back to 1528-1529, depicts the ph and St. Zacharias. 7 The Medici villas he Villa in Poggio a Caiano is the one you come across first coming from Prato. Commis- sioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent and built on a project by Giuliano da Sangallo between 1484 and 1520, it was the summer residence of the Medici and the scene of important events in their dy- nastic history. Between 1865 and 1871 (the period in which Florence was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy) Vittorio Emanuele II and the Countess of Mirafiori, known as “the beautiful Rosina”, stayed there. The villa overlooks a large park with an adjoining neoclassical lemon house and the stables that now house the Ardengo Soffici and Italian 20th century Museum. 8 THE MEDICI VILLAS PRATO AREA verlooking the hills and vineyards of Montal- bano, in a dominant position on the hill that had already hosted a sacred area at the time of the Etruscans, is La Ferdinanda Medici Villa, built in 1596 at the behest of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici, on a design by Bernando Buonta- lenti. Born as a hunting house, it was completed in just four years and represented a sort of link between the various landed properties of the family, a place dedicated to the hu- manistic otium of arts and poetry. 93 Museums Still Life Museum are exhibited, including his famous samples of the fruits produced in Housed since 2007 on the second the Grand Duchy of Tuscany which floor of the Medici Villa of Pog- depict, in detail and with scientific gio a Caiano, it is dedicated to still precision, the countless qualities lifes and paintings of naturali- of citrus fruits, grapes, pears, pe- stic subjects coming from the col- aches, cherries, apricots, apples, lections of the Florentine galleries figs and plums which, between the and belonging to the Medici. The end of the seventeenth and the be- Florentine Bartolomeo Bimbi is ginning of the eighteenth century, the absolute champion in the mu- were produced in the countryside seum, of whom fifty-nine works and gardens of Tuscany. 10 MUSEUMS PRATO AREA Ardengo Soffici and Italian 20th century Museum Located inside the Medici Stables, it represents, together with the book collection kept in the library dedicated to Soffici, a fundamen- tal center for the knowledge of this protagonist of the twentieth cen- tury culture. The paintings made between 1904 and the Sixties allow the visitor to follow the creative arc and the stylistic contribution of this artist with a European character. Archaeological Museum of wine, the three bucchero censers from the 7th century BC, an extraor- Francesco Nicosia dinary turquoise glass bowl, perhaps originating from the Middle East and Located in the village of Artimino, the finally, the funerary equipment of a museum documents the important young warrior. In Comeana, a visit to Etruscan settlement that flourished the princely tumulus of Montefortini in the area from the 7th to the 1st is a must, a monumental artificial hill century BC. The wealth of this sett- that hides two large burial chambers. lement was connected to the control In Artimino you can visit the necro- of land trade and confirmed by the polis of Prato Rosello with its five discovery in the tombs of luxurious tumulus, while on the top of Montal- artifacts that attest to the high social, bano stands the archaeological area economic and cultural level achieved of Pietramarina from where, on clear by the local elite from the seventh days, you can see the sea. century.BC. The museum exhibits ar- tifacts found in the necropolis of Pra- to Rosello, Comeana, Artimino and Pietramarina. Of considerable value are the grave goods by Grumaggio, with the large crater decorated with red figures with Dionysian scenes, the bronze vases for the preparation 113 MUSEUMS PRATO AREA Quinto Martini Museum Park The park is dedicated to Quinto Martini, sculptor and painter born in Seano and introduced to art by Ardengo Soffici, of whom he was pupil and friend.