Il castello della Leccia (Montespertoli, FI)

Within the Pozzolini estate are located the remains of Leccia Castle, constructed in a strategically dominant position atop a Pliocene hill, now densely covered by vegetation. The defensive system comprised a steep escarpment (identified in a 1302 document as ‘the banks’) and one or more towers along the perimeter, of which substantial sections of the original stone and brick curtain walls are still preserved. Archaeological and documentary evidence attests the presence within the fortified area of residential structures and the Romanesque-Gothic church of Santa Maria, documented as early as 1260. At the base of the hill stood a fortified village, functionally and economically connected to the castle. The site was claimed in 1312 by Emperor Henry VII (the «alto Arrigo» of Dantean tradition) and continued to serve a strategic and residential function until at least 1428, when the first indications of abandonment begin to emerge in the historical record. The relatively high density of the settlement suggests that the castle acted as a refuge for a local community of approximately one hundred individuals, primarily smallholders engaged in diversified agriculture, including the cultivation of cereals, vines, and olives.