How to reach
Rigomagno is a locality of the Italian municipality of Sinalunga. It can be easily reached following the signs along the Siena-Bettolle road (SS 715).
History
Rigomagno is a small medieval village located 411 metres above sea level between the Sienese and Arezzo territory of the Val di Chiana (Chiana Valley). The settlement has ancient origins; traces of an Etruscan settlement have been found in the countryside around today's town. The first certain news about the presence of Rigomagno, however, dates back to the 11th century and concerns the settlement of the Counts of Scialenga in the village.
Some also claim that the ancient Rigomagno was not where it rises today, but further north and at a lower altitude, in a small valley formed by a tributary stream of the Foenna torrent, along the Via Cassia. The name Rigomagno may derive from the alteration of this stream, considered a 'Rigum Magnum', a large torrent. The move to the hill may have been caused by the swamping of the Val di Chiana and the consequent progressive unhealthiness of the place.
At the time of the Republic of Siena, the village was a strategic place. On 16 August 1281, the countryside around the castle was the scene of a battle between the troops of the Guelphs and those of the Ghibelline rebels who, led by Neri di Belmonte, a trusted man of the Sienese Ghibelline leader Nicolò Buonsignori, had occupied Rigomagno after a long siege. After this battle, Siena ordered it to be razed to the ground. In 1291, a few hundred metres from the old castle, on the 'Colle degli Ulivi', the present walled village was built, with even more massive fortifications.
The 14th-century walls still encircle the street structure built according to Roman standards, where the cardo and decumanus are the two main streets of the village with the palace, church and cistern located at the central intersection point.
The village passed into the hands of the Florentine Medici family in 1552, who decided to pull down most of the walls. Rigomagno has not changed much since then, except for the installation of the Water Tower (cistern) in the early 20th century.
The remains of the town walls are still clearly recognisable along the entire perimeter in the basal part and for a good stretch almost completely intact along the northern front, in which two semicircular towers of fine workmanship are inserted. Two of the three original gates are also well preserved, the Porta Senese to the south and the Porta Nord. The western part of the walls, undermined by a recent collapse, will soon be the subject of careful restoration and structural consolidation work by the municipal administration of Sinalunga (news of August 2021).
The main buildings in Rigomagno are the Church of San Marcellino, the aforementioned 19th-century public cistern and the ancient Palazzo Pretorio. The tower of the palace has been transformed into the bell tower of the single-nave Romanesque church, which contains a fresco depicting the Martyrdom of St Sebastian.