Stigliano

Just a short drive from Siena, Stigliano and its medieval towers are easy to reach along the SS223 Siena–Grosseto road. Take the exit for Orgia and follow the signs to Stigliano/Rosia. At the entrance to the village you’ll find a convenient parking area, making your visit simple and enjoyable.

Stigliano is an important medieval settlement, made up of three distinct hamlets: the Poggiarello, the Palazzo, and the Poggio. Its origins date back to a castle belonging to the Ardengheschi counts, already mentioned in a papal bull issued by Pope Celestine III on April 17, 1194.

The village’s strategic position, on the border of the Ardenghesca feudal county and at the entrance to the Val di Merse, gave it a central role from the early Middle Ages. Here, an intense metallurgical activity developed, linked to the Colline Metallifere (Metalliferous Hills) and the course of the River Merse, where Sienese wool merchants brought their cloth to be fulled in the water-powered mills. Stigliano was also crossed by an ancient roadway used for transhumance, leading flocks toward the Maremma: a vital crossroads of trade and production that soon attracted the expansionist ambitions of the Republic of Siena, at the expense of the Diocese of Volterra.

At the beginning of the 13th century, following the defeat of the Ardengheschi, Stigliano was incorporated into the Sienese contado and became the seat of a small rural municipality. During this period, the monastery of Santa Mustiola in Torri was founded, strengthening Siena’s control over the area. Later, the monks of San Galgano promoted important reclamation works and harnessed the waters of the Merse to create mills, forges, and kilns for the production of bricks destined for Siena.

The village experienced a flourishing economic season, later interrupted by the 14th-century crisis and the Black Death of 1348, which reduced the vitality of the communal system and marked the return of feudal structures. During the 14th and 15th centuries, powerful Sienese families such as the Pecci, Borghesi, Venturi Gallerani, and Placidi established large landed estates, absorbing the small local holdings. In Stigliano, they built farms, grance (monastic farm estates), and stately homes, such as Palazzo Orcenni (later donated to the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala), the Borghesi farm, and the Placidi’s Poderina.

The history of Stigliano was also marked by dramatic events: the village was repeatedly devastated—by the army of Emperor Henry VII in 1313, by the Pisans led by the Florentine Ciupo Scolari in 1332, by the English mercenary company of John Beltoft in 1387, by that of Luigi da Capua in 1391, and finally by imperial troops on September 11, 1554, during the War of Siena.

Architecture and Historic Hamlets

Today, Stigliano still preserves a rich medieval heritage:

• In the Poggio: the stone tower with remnants of machicolations, part of the old feudal castle.

• In the Palazzo: a scarped stone tower with large arched windows, once belonging to the Borghesi family and mentioned in a 1476 document as Stigliano Borghesi. At its foot stood the Borgolozzi quarter, where the common people lived.

• In the Poggiarello: The most substantial complex of medieval buildings includes a battlemented tower with a sloping base, a rare example of 13th-century fortification, a 14th-century house with a brick portico and loggia, and another featuring two elegant Gothic mullioned windows. This site was settled by the Pecci family, wealthy Sienese merchants and bankers. The original core consisted of two adjoining tower houses, enclosed within defensive walls that were repeatedly heightened and reinforced to withstand incursions. The main tower is one of the few in the area built exclusively for military use, later subject to an unfinished attempt at monumentalization with external staircases.

  During the 13th and 14th centuries, the hill was densely built up and protected by ever-wider walls, eventually becoming a true private fortress, strategically important for Siena. The destruction caused by the War of Siena fragmented the structure, marking the end of its military function. In modern times, the complex was adapted for agricultural purposes, yet it still preserves clear traces of its defensive past, visible in the towers and the remains of the walls.

Stigliano is therefore not just a charming village of the Sienese countryside but a true gateway to the history of the Val di Merse—a land shaped over the centuries by trade, wars, metallurgy, and shifting powers, which together forged its enduring identity.