© Photo: Andrea Barghi

A warrior with sword and armour surveys the countryside, crystallised for centuries in a caryatid. The man-at-arms is Simone da Battifolle of the Guidi family, made lords of half of Tuscany and Romagna by the emperor. It is no coincidence that Simone still inhabits the castle: the palace and the whole town owe their grandeur to him and his descendants.

Towards the end of the 12th century, Poppi, originally called Poplo, was of secondary military and religious importance with respect to nearby Fronzola, or to Buiano and Strumi, linked by the old Etruscan and Roman road. But in 1196 Count Guido Bevisangue became lord of Poppi and the monastery of San Fedele at Strumi, of which the Guidi were the protectors, was moved onto the hill. It was Guido’s grandson Simone, though, who gave the old Lombard fortress is noble appearance and walled in the town. The Florentines, who overthrew Francesco, the last rebel count, in 1440, were also fascinated by the castle, which Arnolfo di Cambio had taken as model for the Palazzo della Signoria.

Poppi became the main town in the Casentino district and even today, despite the fact that the town is neither the biggest nor the most industrialised, its inhabitants feel it is the true heart of the valley: the power of the Guidi and their splendid palace.

At first sight, it is hard to say what is more attractive, the elegance of its forms or its lovely courtyard, the frescoes of Taddeo Gaddi or the richness of the old Biblioteca Rilliana, which holds over 70,000 volumes.

The remains of the Guidi family were kept here until the 15th century. Between the abbey and the castle is the old centre with its arcaded streets, its 16th century palaces, its doorways and its churches. The most characteristic one, the Oratorio della Madonna del Morbo, is a little 17th century chapel erected in hopes the town would be spared from the plague and a rare example of Tuscan late baroque. Inside is a Madonna attributed to Filippino Lippi.

At the foot of the hill flows the Arno and beyond it lies the new town, Ponte a Poppi, where less than two centuries ago there was only a customs-house, the granaries, a couple of mills, a tavern and, naturally, a bridge, which led (and leads) to the heart of the valley.

In the immediate vicinity of Poppi are numerous places that recall the events of the past in ruins of mighty fortresses (Fronzola), ancient churches and abbeys (Buiano, Strumi). But the most evocative place of all is the plain of Campaldino, where, on the day of St Barnabas in 1289, Florentines and Aretines, Guelphs and Ghibellines, staged one of the bloodiest battles in all the Middle Ages. In the ranks of the Guelphs was a young man of little more than twenty who was to become one of the world’s greatest poets. Although he immortalised the battle in his works he would not deny that he had been ‘very afraid’. The young man’s name? Dante Alighieri.

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