Anghiari is a lovely medieval small town located in Arezzo’s province. The locality lies on a charming hill situated between Tiber and Arno rivers, overlooking the beautiful High Tiber Valley landscape.
During the middle Ages, Anghiari was under the dominion of the Lords of Galbino subsequently passing into the Camaldolesi’s power.
Fully proud of its Tuscan history, the town reached it leading part during the famous Battle of Anghiari, held on 29th June 1440 by Milan’s government against Florence’s State in alliance with the Pope Eugene IV.
Florentine’s State army was conducted by Giampaolo Orsini and Micheletto Attendolo and Milan’s army by Niccolò Piccinino.
The victory of the Florence State was such as decisive as to consent them to stay over the control of central Italy.
According to Machiavelli’s writes, the battle was held in about 20 hours and, nevertheless the hard combating, only one soldier died, felling off his horse, as faithfully represented in the mural “The Battle of Anghiari” which Florence, many years later, entrusted to Leonardo da Vinci to commemorate the epic achievement.
Leonardo started the work on cartoons transferring them to an internal wall of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. While he was working on the mural several main artists were coming to the capital to watch the painting and to learn about Leonardo’s innovative technique.
Peter Paul Rubens made a copy of “The Battle of Anghiari” hosts in the Louvre and Biagio di Antonio, from Paolo Uccello’s school, made another one kept in Dublin, in the National Art Gallery of Ireland.
The mural was unfinished and definitively lost during the drying process in Florence. However, it was substituted in Palazzo Vecchio by a same object Giorgio Vasari’s mural.
What to visit in Anghiano:
- The Fortress: an imposing defensive structure completed in the 14th century, further destroyed and rebuilt in different periods. Together with the ancient castle the fortress is keeping the clock tower coming back from the 17th century.
- Palazzo Marzocco: built up in the 15th century, it was the residence of the aristocratic Angelieri family. Nowadays is hosting “The Battle of Anghiari Documentation Centre”.
- Palazzo Taglieschi: a beautiful Renaissance building with an elaborated façade, houses the National Museum of Arts and Popular Tradition hosting an interesting collection of paintings, frescoes, terracotta, statues, sacred furnishing and instruments coming back from different artistic periods. Its masterpiece is the wooden sculpture by Jacopo della Quercia representing “The Madonna and Child”.
- The Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie: it was built up between the 17th and the 18th century and hosts a wonderful glazed terracotta named “Madonna delle Grazie” by Della Robbia’s family.
Where to eat:
- Ristorante “La Nena”: a small popular restaurant located at the top of the town. It is well-known because of its fresh wild truffles and mushrooms. Its local cuisine is offering a very good hand made pasta, grilled meat, delicious hunting dishes and some unique vegetables or hunting homemade timbales.
Original post by Basil Gumming and software by Elliott Back