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A lofty, |
 © Photo: Andrea Barghi |
| Leaving the national road
near Bibbiena and heading in the direction of
Ortignano-Raggiolo along the Teggina torrent, travellers
are struck by the constructions perched on the heights of
Uzzano that, together with the old settlement of Giogalto
on the opposite side, have always kept watch over the
entrance to the valley. After the gorge the valley widens
out and one comes to the village of San Piero in Frassino
where, apparently, an ash grove once stood. In a few
kilometres the road begins to rise, plunging into the
green of the woods. After a cross-roads Ortignano is on
the left and Raggiolo straight ahead. Ortignano, a place-name of Latin origin, winds around a hill where a castle once stood. It is mentioned in a 13th century document together with Raggiolo, confirming a link between the two communities since ancient times. Raggiolo, the other part of the commune, is one of the best examples of &lsquospontaneous urbanism' in the Casentino district. The buildings and open spaces from the pre-industrial period have not been substantially compromised and are still present in their original forms. Climbing the steep flagged roads and walking the narrow lanes between the little plots of land shored up by loose-laid stone walls, one grasps how a proper balance between man and the environment involves an aesthetic dimension. A &lsquobeautiful landscape', an awareness of the micro-spaces of life, becomes a kind of collective, choral work of art, layered in time, the result of centuries of toil and harmonious interaction between man and nature. Raggiolo, however, more than any other, is the village of chestnuts. Each house had a drying shed where this fruit, the inhabitants' primary source of nourishment, was dried before being taken to the mill to be made into flour. Standing before these little blackened huts one's thoughts drift back in time to only a few decades ago, when countless wisps of smoke rose from the village in the autumn and the chestnut groves resounded with the voices of people intent on their harvest. Before leaving the territory of Ortignano-Raggiolo we can't help trying to involve you in a puzzle that still stirs the interest of scholars and local historians: the search for the lost abbey of San Salvatore di Selvamonda. The abbey, founded in 999 by a nobleman named Griffo, count of Chiusi and Chitignano, first housed a convent, then a community of monks. Under a concession from the pope, the monks founded a new monastery. This double location has always caused problems. The original site is thought to have been in the vicinity of the Zenna torrent, near the Abbey of Cornano, while according to some the second complex must be the present abbey at Tega, a locality not far from Ortignano, sunk in centuries-old chestnut woods. |
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