In this room, furnishings relating to the Mayor’s ceremonial office have been conserved. The video shows images taken from the most important ancient documents regarding the foundation of Terre Nuove Florentine (Florentine New Lands). Lands that were created primarily to curb the ambitions of local squires and to ensure greater defensive security for the mother city.
On 26 January 1299, a resolution of the Florentine Republic (Fig. 45 document) made explicit reference to the creation of three new centres, two (Castelfranco and Terranuova) in the district of Casa Uberti and one (Castel San Giovanni) in the Pian Alberti area:
tres Terrae seu comunitates de novo construantur et hedifficentur et fiant et popullentur in partibus vallis Arni et videlicet due ex eis in planitie et partibus de Casuberti, tertia vero in burgo seu iuxta burgum Plani Alberti.
With this incipit, the disposition of the Florentine Signoria marked the birth of Castel San Giovanni. It had been preceded by the destruction of the castle of Pianalberti, which the Terra Nuova replaced by superimposing its new borders on those of the jurisdiction of the castrum. As was often the case, the cassero of the old castle, (palacium de Piano Alberti), the most obvious fortified structure, which had once been the residence of the lords and which in 1312 was entrusted to the Vallombrosian monks of the Chianti Abbey of Passignano, must have survived. Together with the castle, a significant group of notable families (Attingi, Benzi), which Florence had managed to move here from Figline in the previous century, also disappeared.
The name and characteristics of Castel San Giovanni in Altura were decided by the Priors, the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia and their representatives. The rules that governed the settlement of the town, like the others founded by Florence, were relatively simple: the inhabitants undertook to build their own houses and put up the necessary structures to fortify the settlement. The newcomers would enjoy tax immunities for a duration of no more than 10 years: the discretion over this period allowed the attraction of tax exemption to be adjusted according to the greater or lesser flow of immigration in the most delicate years for the success of a new foundation. Here as in the other Terre Nuove, the nascent community rejected the presence of leading lights from the town or from the countryside, and nor could they purchase, hold or rent buildings and building lots not only within Castel San Giovanni but within a radius of two miles of its walls (approximately 3.3 km).
(The text is taken from the museum guide, edited by Claudia Tripodi and Valentina Zucchi, Sagep, 2024)
The New Lands Museum
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