Poppi is a delightfully named town in the Casentino area in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany. It is about 40 kilometres east of Florence and 30 kilometres north east of Arezzo.
The impressive Poppi castle sits high on a hill and has its origins between the 7th and 8th centuries when the first wooden buildings and a cistern were built. The castle was built by the Guidi family in the 10th century. The architect of the castle is said to be Arnolfo di Camaiore who also designed the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. It is easy to see the similarities.
It is everything you would expect of a castle. It has a tower and steep walls enclosing a courtyard with a well. The walls were once surrounded by a moat and had a drawbridge with a stone building at the entrance. It is still there and is now the ticket office for the castle.
Once inside the castle you enter a large internal courtyard with a magnificent stone staircase built in 1470 to replace the older wooden one.
I would love to have this lion at the foot of my stairs and the snake winding its way up the railing…perhaps I should just move in.
The walls behind the staircase are covered with the coats of arms of Florentine families that ruled Poppi in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Leading off the inner courtyard is the Guidi family chapel, covered in frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi, a pupil of Giotto. These frescoes date from the early to mid 1300s. It astounds me that they are so well preserved and still vibrant.
A walk outside on this level reveals the outer walls of the castle and magnificent views over the countryside below.
The upstairs balcony railings are impressive.
Upstairs on the first floor is the beautifully decorated ballroom. These rooms always make me want to go home and paint my walls. I wouldn’t mind the Della Robbia as well. This room was set up with rows of chairs. It is good to see these wonderful buildings being used on a regular basis.
Another room is devoted to war machines. All kinds of killing machines were used in fighting and sieges. There are the Roman catapult, the onagro, the trebuchet, the scorpion, the staircase and the ram.
Next door is a room dedicated to the Campaldino battle that took place on the Casentino plain on June 11th 1289. The scale model of the battle has more than 4,000 hand painted tin and lead toy soldiers illustrating the line-ups at the beginning of the battle.
A model of an earlier version of the castle is on display.
There is also the Rilliana library with a collection of 25,000 ancient books. The library was built after the death of count Frabrizio Rilli-Orsini in 1828. He donated his huge collection to the community of Poppi. Photos were not allowed, but it is a must visit section of the castle.
We climbed the 104 steps to the top of the tower which was reconstructed in the 19th century after it was struck by lightning. The tower was a prison and a lightning rod was installed in 1786.
The reason for our visit was to see the exhibition of art relating to Dante. The works come from the Uffizzi in Florence to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante, poet, writer and the father of the Italian language. Dante has a connection with Poppi. During his exile from Florence he was hosted by Count Guidi for one year. He is said to have composed his 33rd canto of the Inferno during this time.
The exhibition is dedicated to the Divine Comedy. There are illustrations by Federico Zaccari from the 1600s, one by Nicola Monte and a couple of more recent works by Beatrice Goretti from 1903.
No matter which angle Dante is viewed from he looks stern. I have never seen a smiling statue of Dante anywhere.
We walked through a lovely park in front of the castle to the where we had lunch in the garden of the Albergo Casentino.
On the edge of the town on a wall we spotted this whimsical sculpture.
I was most impressed by this balcony garden.
And these steps ending in mid air.
Poppi is a lovely town and the castle is spectacular. Here is a post I wrote after my first visit… Pop into Poppi
I said in my previous post, it is worth visiting Poppi for the castle alone, but the countryside around it is spectacular…a great day out.