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Probably this castle is the same as that with the
toponym of
Scoriavolpe, noted in a document of 1154 at
Badia a Isola. We have no news for the entire Middle Ages and we
are unable to present a schematic history. In the second half of the 13
C, however, it belonged to the Alberti family and through marriage ties
it passed into the Salimbeni heritage. In 1313 Arrigo VII occupied it
and used it as a base to devastate the Sienese countryside up to the
threshold of Porta Camollia. In 1318 the Salimbeni, in particular
Benuccio di Messer Benuccio and his nephews, owned "cassarum et
fortilitiam" of Strozzavolpe; the structure was then sold at the end
of the 14 C to the Adimari of Florence (the coat of arms of this
family is found carved on a fireplace in rooms still used as a farm in
1960).
In 1479, at the time of the capture of Poggibonsi by the Duke of
Calabria, Strozzavolpe also underwent the siege but did not fall. A
still extant fresco in the Council Hall of the town hall of Siena (by
Giovanni di Cristoforo Ghini and Francesco d'Andrea in
1480), in fact, shows the castle with the banner still hoisted (a white
flag with red cross).
The castle has been the subject of an interesting study by the local
historian Arcangeli. This author, relying on iconographic
comparisons of old prints and through personal verification, observes
how the original complex consisted of two towers, scarp walls with
ditches around, a drawbridge and "a central male". The two towers were
placed one on the bridge and the other on the opposite end. Inside,
besides the male, there were small buildings along the walls (which
still existed), the basements and the entrance to a gallery.
In the 19 C, the owner, Alessandro Bizzarri, had an integral
restoration of the male, in German romantic style, carried out by the
engineer Jacopo Rigacci. Thus a large body disproportionate to the walls
was born and it was therefore necessary to raise the access tower, whose
old battlements are incorporated in the elevation, where they still
stand out, while the new battlements were made of bricks and resting on
spouts, the moat was also opened. Of the castle remains the original
wall of irregular shape with masonry, at least in part original. |
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