Lucignano d'Arbia Monteroni d'Arbia

Lucignano is a nice fortified village with a circular plant, which has kept most of the original medieval sarchitectures. To precede the entrance into the village from the sienese door, there is a brick –fountain, of which the waters collect into a basin underneath, with a square plant. The fountains testify the presence of an hospital, besides some hotels. Very interesting are also the fourteenth-century “Torre del Cassero” and the beautiful church of Saint Francesco(XIII century) with a gothic portal and frescos by Bartolo di Fredi. The church of Saint Cristina is mentioned, together with the annexed hospital, since the X century. In 1276 it became a parish and it was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. Of Romanesque structure and several times worked over, it is particularly interesting the “French” covering, made with arches in bricks on which the beams lie. On the inside the baptismal font and some canvas of good painters, among which rises (unfortunately only with a copy), the sienese Simone Martini. The Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala had here a fortified mill, in the Grancia of Cuna’s service, of which today it rests only the imposing brick-tower of 1322. On the superior floor, there were the lodgings for the pilgrims. It is an agricultural village, surrounded by walls, with the churches of the Saints Giacomo and Modesto(1314). If the Crete were the granary of the lands of Siena, Monteroni d’Arbia was a very important farm of the ancient republic of Siena. Like Buonconvento, the village is completely crossed by the ancient Via Francigena, which today corresponds to the street-axis of the Cassia. Still nowadays, Monteroni shows the vitality of this land, thanks to an important artisan-production and the traditional market. To testify its importance as a centre of agricultural production, is the fourteenth-century fortified mill which is easily visible for its big tower in fired-brick. Along the road which links Siena and Monteroni, another important monument for the traveller who is looking for the “genius loci” of the Crete, is the monumental farm of Cuna, an extraordinary fortified “grancia” which belonged to the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala. Going through the Cassia towards Buonconvento, you quickly reach the village of Lucignano d’Arbia, a fortified village where it is worthwhile to visit the Romanesque parish of Saint John the Baptist, frescoed in the XVI century by Arcangelo Salimbeni. Starting again from the Cassia, the road which leads to Radi will show you another splendid stretch of the Crete, until the magnificent Parish of Corsano.