How the People of Florence made the Land of Castello San Giovanni and Castello Franco in Valdarno. In the said year, being the municipality and the people of Florence in a good and happy state, even though the nobility had begun to contradict the people, as we have said, the people, in order to fortify themselves better in the countryside and to diminish the power of the nobles and of the powerful of the countryside, especially that of the Pazzi di Val d’Arno and the Ubertini, who were Ghibellines, ordered that two large castles and lands be made in Valdarno; one was between Feghine and Montevarchi, and was called Castello Santo Giovanni; the other was in the Uberti district on the opposite side of the Arno, and was called Castello Franco, and all the inhabitants of the said castles were freed for ten years from all communal duties and expenses, so that many of the faithful of the Pazzi and Ubertini families, and those of Ricasoli and of the Conti and other nobles, in order be freed men, became dwellers of the said castles; on account of which these grew and multiplied in a short time, and made themselves fruitful and large lands.
In fact, between 1299 and 1350 Florence planned six new settlements and to this day, when we speak of the Florentine Terre Nuove, we tend to refer exactly to these six settlements: San Giovanni Valdarno, Terra Santa Maria (Terranuova Bracciolini), Castelfranco di Sopra, Castel San Barnaba (today’s Scarperia), Firenzuola and Giglio Fiorentino to which, however, should be added Vicchio di Mugello, Tartigliese in the Upper Valdarno and Castel San Pietro in Val di Sieve, which had a different fate in some respects from the other Terre.
These were centres that the Republic had built ex novo between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century, mainly for anti-seigniory purposes: small urban centres designed from scratch on paper, inspired by principles of regularity and optimisation, all sharing a number of common features.
As David Friedman notes, these foundations stood out for the originality of their urban planning and the engineering precision with which they were realised.
However, we can attempt to make an initial general distinction into two groups. The foundations that appeared in the Upper Valdarno – namely Castelfranco, San Giovanni, Terra Santa Maria – responded to the need to govern a territory that Florence had recently acquired to the south-east, in the direction of Arezzo and Rome.
The other three foundations, only two of which were fully realised, were deliberated shortly afterwards (Castel San Barnaba and Firenzuola in the spring of 1306, and finally Giglio Fiorentino, unrealised, was planned in 1350) and concerned a different geographical area, namely that of Mugello, north of Florence. The purposes of Scarperia and Firenzuola were expressly defensive: their foundation was a matter of putting in place a soft but unavoidable system to repress and contain the pride of certain branches of the Ubaldini family, lords of the Apennine area.
(The text is taken from the museum guide, edited by Claudia Tripodi and Valentina Zucchi, Sagep, 2024)
