Gate to the Middle Ages

Abbadia a Isola was founded in 1001 by the lords of Staggia.

The complex was built in a marsh located at the intersection of the four counties of Florence, Fiesole, Siena and Volterra, on an important stretch of the Via Francigena and at the confluence of secondary links to Florence and Volterra.

The abbey was conceived as a measure aimed at consolidating the patrimony of the founding family. Between the 11th and the 14th century it experienced a great expansion, acquiring lands and castles as well as strengthening its role in territorial control. The Siennese fortified the abbey in 1376 and made it part of the system of castles located on the borders of their territory.

In the last years the Via Francigena has gained new importance, taking back its long lost historical and cultural centrality. Since 2004 it is a Great Cultural Itinerary of the Council of Europe, largely following in its actual route the itinerary left by Sigeric at the end of the 10th century. For the territory of Monteriggioni Sigeric’s itinerary indicates the submansio of Borgonuovo and Abbadia Isola.

Investments

The Municipal Administration, assisted by the company AD 1213, carries out major human, economic and urban planning investments, for "decorum" and accessibility, for the experience to be lived by visitors, with great attention to families and religious tourism. Investments have been significant and continue to make Monteriggioni one of the "capitals" of the Via Francigena: home of the Tuscan Association of the Vie Francigene, it also organizes the Forum of the Via Francigena Municipalities.

The Castle is constantly visited by tourists delighted by this breathtaking scenery and willing to feel the past centuries with the legacy they left behind: towers, palaces, buildings, walls, the shape of the streets and squares. Abbadia Isola, an extraordinary monumental complex, has been restored and is becoming an important cultural and aggregation center, acting as a luxury hostel for pilgrims walking on the Via Francigena. It hosts high quality events, aimed at bringing together people and families with cultural operators, making them interact. This happened, for example, at the recent children's book fair held in February 2018 that has not only had great success, but also brought over 200 students from local schools to work for months on selected books. In other words, Abbadia a Isola is becoming a place of values, experiences, socialization. Monuments and landscape are told to people and made to appreciate emotionally, through a continuous fil rouge of events that allow them to get into history in several different ways. This happens at various stages, systematically, through fixed dates but also with European level events that promote knowledge and cultural insight.
The "Walk in history" is organized at regular intervals along the Via Francigena, where people walk together with characters in medieval dresses. The final stop is in Monteriggioni where participants continue their immersion in the Middle Ages led by the members of the cultural association L'Agresto, proud promoters of their own origins. But many other events are organized to tie people with monuments and history: from the Slow Travel Fest (respecting the theme chosen by the UN for 2017: "International Year of Sustainable Tourism") to the Medieval Festival, one of the oldest in Italy and one that enjoys greater reputation for the cooperation between the Municipal Administration, the academic world and the community.

Events hosting

The vocation of Monteriggioni is therefore to host events that always strengthen its widely recognised role of cultural stimulus for the knowledge of history and traditions in the national panorama, for the general public as well as for a generational education. Both the work of the Municipal Administration and the vocation of the monumental center support this effort.

All events connected with the Via Francigena and its fideistic-cultural aspects, with the landscape of diffused castles, with the value-creation chain of the monumental complex of Abbadia a Isola are part of such an approach. And the same goes especially for Monteriggioni itself with the great medieval festival: an intermediate and crucial moment in strengthening the cultural identity of Monteriggioni and of its community, which is very active in preserving memory. In fact, Monteriggioni, as a cultural district promotes the exchange, communication, socialization and sharing of the "imaginary", the "historical" and the "traditional". Starting from this assumption, the concept of a cultural district stimulates the specialization of the territorial offer in creating culture as a tangible and intangible product of the area (therefore, intense culture in a broad sense: from content creation to quality food, from the environmental goods to architectures, etc.). Ultimately, talking about a cultural district (like it is in our case), also means to build up and give centrality to a solid reputation. In fact, district policies can prove to be much more important than their immediate economic impact: they are a strategic resource capable of supporting effective territorial marketing in a lively competition between Italian and European cultural production and consumption centers.