The Italian Medieval New York

San Gimignano, the “town of towers”, stands majestically on a hill straddling Val d'Elsa and Val d'Era at 334 meters above sea level; its walls and fortified buildings forms a unique horizon nestled in the heart of the Etruscan territory. San Gimignano, situated along one of the Via Francigena, was once a renowned stopping point for pilgrims traveling to and from Rome; to its name it’s related a curious legend.

The story goes that on January 31st a young man of Colle Val d'Elsa, who was in Modena, attended on that day the solemn funeral for the death of Bishop Gimignano. Being dazzled by a large ring on the dead bishop’s finger, the young man decided to stole it taking advantage of a moment of confusion in the crowd. Unfortunately, the ring did not came off, letting him to pull it so hard that the jewel came along with the entire finger. The boy then came back to his village but, still terrified by what he had done, took refuge in a country church. There he remained for three days and three nights, but when he decided to leave, he noticed that the door was locked and he had lost the gift of sight. It is said that, to his first responders the boy appeared destroyed; he returned the stolen finger, regaining the sight, and broke into tears of repentance. Both the ring and the finger are still part of the assets of the reliquary Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Assunta in San Gimignano.

The village of San Gimignano that originally belonged to the jurisdiction of the bishops of Volterra, gained its independence in 1199, the year of the proclamation of its first mayor. The city, known as the independent municipality of San Gimignano delle Belle Torri, experienced a long period of economic splendor, which was due mainly to the trade of fine local agricultural products such as saffron also sold abroad, in France, the Netherlands, to Syria, and to the activities of financial speculation. Thus was born an urban aristocracy, the city was in fact ruled by two great rival families, the Guelphs Ardinghelli and the Ghibellines Salvucci, who were in constant struggle trying to prevail over one another through the construction of towers. The tallest tower symbolized the most powerful faction; in total 72 tower-houses were built, but just 14 of them have come to our days, which are:

 •    The Devil’s Tower, which was named after a curious event, occurred to its owner it is said in fact that after returning from a trip, he noticed with great surprise that his tower was taller than when he had left it. This strange event was immediately connected to a diabolical participation and so the tower become connected to the Devil itself.

•    The Tower of Becci and the Tower of Cugnanesi.

•    The two towers of Ardinghelli, a noble Ghibelline family.

•    The twin towers of Salvucci, a noble family at war with the Ardinghelli family.

•    The Tower of Pucci, a truncated tower leaned on Palazzo Tortoli. It is characterised by mullioned windows in Gothic style.

•    The Tower of Pellari.

•    Tower Chigi, one of the most beautiful, but the lowest, of towers.

•    The “Torre Grossa”, completed in 1311, and built entirely of travertine. It is almost 54 meters high and is located on the right of the Town Hall, in Piazza del Duomo.

•    Torre “Rognosa”, it name is due to people who were affected by scabies and inhabited the tower that was once a prison.


With the considerable economic resources gained, the city began the construction of major public works. The town was in fact divided into four districts, each corresponding to a main door: that of Piazza di Castello, of St. Matteo and St. Giovanni, and it even hosted Dante Alighieri as an ambassador of the Guelph League in Tuscany.


But the independence and the glory lasted only until 1353 when San Gimignano, after having been decimated by an epidemics of black plague, was subjected to the Republic of Florence. Since that date, the city’s economic, cultural and architectural growth ended, but despite this period of decline, a large range of artistic initiatives were carried out. In the late nineteenth century, the town has seen a progressive revival thanks to the increasing flow of tourists who came to admire a centre that has preserved intact its original architectural beauty. San Gimignano is today a UNESCO world heritage site.

Saletta di Costanzana

Saletta is a small village located in the province of Vercelli, and it is a small fraction of Costanzana. The name Saletta has clear Lombard origins, like other similar place names with the same ending, such as: Salasco, Saliceto, Saluggia and Salera. The term “Sala” was used to indicate the most important place of the “Curtis”, which was usually the residence of the most important members of “Fara”(Lombard military organization).

The story of Saletta of Costanzana, officially begins in the Middle Ages, but there are several stories and unconfirmed reports that gives reason to believe that this place was inhabited since ancient times, in the era in which giants are said to have existed. In the book of Genesis (VI, 4) it is written that the earth before the flood was inhabited by giants and the historic, Giovan Battista Modena, who lived between the sixteenth and the seventeenth century said he found the bones of a giant in the area adjacent to Saletta of Costanzana. Precisely in 1622 came the discovery of a skeleton of gigantic proportions; the historian described it as "a giant body, with an unspeakable height and thickness that I have ever seen, measured". It is said that the bones were so old that they become similar to the stone.

This story has no real historical foundation, but it was found that the area between Saletta and Tower, was once a glacier and that between the nearby hills of Monferrato is possible to find fossils of shells ... according to this theory, the story of the giants in Saletta di Costanzana might have a grain of truth.
Let’s move to the Middle Ages, here we found a first mentioning of the village in 1148 AD and then a second one in an 1152 diploma of Frederick Barbarossa. At the end of the thirteenth century, the family Saletta, owner of some structures of the village, donated all their possessions to the Monastery of San Martino in Lagatasco who later sold them for 625 Imperial Lire  to the Abbey of Sant’ Andrea. In 1481, the fief of Saletta passed to the Marquis of Monferrato, who in turn sold it to Roger Ponzoni of Milan, but it is only in 1625 that the property become possession of the Marquis Giovanni Francesco Mossi. The Marquis Mossi wanted to turn the complex of Saletta into a modern agricultural complex optimizing the harvest and focusing on the development of the social aggregation of the peasants. The project was entrusted to the architect Casale Vitili. In 1829, after the death of the last person of the Mossi family, Saletta of Costanzana passed to the Pallavicini family letting a series of eerie legends begin, especially with the birth of Giuseppe Pallavicini Mossi.
Conceived by an affair between an archbishop (Mossi) and a woman of the Pallavicini family, the child was placed in an orphanage. At age 15, while he was to pick cherries on a tree he was given the good news that he had become, by hereditary right, the owner of the large estate of “Saletta di Costanzana”. The boy contemptuous of the life and legacy uttered this sentence: "It was better than I had died when I was born". It is said that a gypsy, hearing the sentence pronounced, predicted the extinction of the race Pallavicini Mossi within four generations, and indeed, some year ago, the last Pallavicini-Mossi exponent died.

Not much is left of what it has said to be a cursed village. The village today can be divided into three principal parts : The Castle, The Church and “Il Tempietto”.  However, let’s start from the beginning…  and try to summarize the many, written and oral stories, that found place in people imaginary and sometimes even a small space on the sidebars of local newspapers.

The Church
Dedicated to St. Bartholomew, this is the first structure we meets leaving the road and it’s possible to park right in front of it. Its existence has been reported since 1280 and we know that the church belonged for a period to the abbey of St. Andrew, coming later under the diocese of Vercelli.
The structure is fairly preserved, and the access door is today locked to prevent access to the vandals who plundered it in the past. At its core, worthy of note, is a board which is believed to come from the School of Lanino and which depicts the enthroned Virgin holding its child, crowned by two angels, to her right we see San Bartolomeo on her left San Sebastiano.
Locals tell of rather gruesome events related to this church...

It is said that before the bolting of the door, the place was regularly used as place to pursue black masses and demonic rituals; the church was commonly believed to be place of worship of a specific religious sect, who adored the statue of a bull or goat with red eyes, preserved inside the church. This rumour, never confirmed, may have been inspired by the decoration of the tympanum of the church that shows a series of cow skulls in relief. What is known for sure is that the black masses went on regularly inside the church; to discourage the followers, periodic checks were scheduled by the police. In an article of "La Stampa", dated 8 December 1991, appeared some curious testimony, of local children who said to have witnessed these alleged rituals.

Adjacent to the church there is a small cemetery, which only access road is blocked by a big locked iron gate.

The Castle
Its first appearance dates back to a 1272 document, though probably its construction may dates back to an earlier period. Located nearby the church, the castle is formed by a central body surrounded by the ruins of several houses. What once was the structure of the castle, no longer exists, the structures have changed over the years and today it looks more like a farm; it is today uninhabited.

Il Tempietto
“Il Tempietto” construction is linked to the history of an unlucky couple of lovers.
The story goes that once a young girl, who belonged to the Mossi family, desperately fell in love with a knight of the “Torrione”. The man did reciprocate her love but unfortunately her family did not accepted their union, that was the reason why after being hindered in many ways they decided to kill themselves to live happily their love in the afterlife (just like Romeo and Juliet).
It so happened that one night in May the two committed suicide, leaving the Monsignor Mossi so shocked that he decided to build the actual “Tempietto” right where the two killed themselves. It is said that many have reported seeing the spirits of the two lovers appearing right next to the “Tempietto” in the night of May.
However, let’s talk now about the actual story…
Also called the tabernacle of San Sebastiano, “Tempietto” is located about fifty meters from the church and can be reached by passing a field, hidden by vegetation; its shape begins to glimpse when you are close enough to the grove. It is thought that the current structure was built on a more ancient temple dating back to the Romanesque. “Tempietto” is round shaped with twelve columns and a high base, with stairs that connect it to the ground; on the inside there was once an altar which is now completely destroyed.
On the back of the temple, at its base, we can find an opening. Looking at its inside, you can easily see a staircase that descend in the basement which has thrust function for the entire structure. Legends which dates back to the '70s, tell of an intricate network of underground which unravel from the temple to unknown directions.
We know that in the Vercelli area the average length of an underground passage ranged from 1 mile to 2, with exceptions with peaks of 7 km, as well as a few tens of meters.

According to the average distances, the Castle Tower (2.3 Km), but also some church or the castle of the nearest Costanzana, would have been a good chance to be the exit of the tunnel. The problem is that there is no input in this tiny room of “Tempietto”, moreover, along the side walls there are no signs of restoration or post masonry of any kind, while at the center, where we assumed a trap door, there is nothing but clay and earth.
Although there was a widespread fashion to bury the tunnels when they were no longer needed, there is the remote possibility that the current flooring was made up of the debris used to enclose access. It is much more likely that the tunnel had an input in the nearby church or castle, rather than under the tabernacle of San Sebastian. We still haven’t find traces of these underground today.