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Strategically
located on a hill (m 417), during the 12th century the village was object
of long disputes among the habitants of Siena, Volterra and Florence,
as the strongly damaged medieval walls remind us. The borough extends
itself along the central axis which connects the two main entrance doors:
Porta Frati on the northern site and Porta Rivellino on the southern ,
where stands the Rocca Senese (1352-59) now used as Town Hall.
Along the
main road are erected splendid palaces, such as the 13th century Palazzo
Porrina, the magistrate's palace with all the original crests, and the
beautiful collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta, built on 1016 and
then transformed and refurbished in several occasions. In the Collegiate
Church Museum, are displayed jewels, sacred vessels and paintings coming
from various churches from the close-by areas (the Madonna of Humility
by Domenico Michelino, an altar-piece by Andrea di Niccolò), besides a
collection of valuable Etruscan finds coming from the necropolis of the
surrounding territory.
After 8 km
circa from Casole we start to go up towards Mensano (m 499), a small medieval
borough standing on a hill. The beautiful church of San Giovanni Battista
(XI century) present an old baptising font in stone and wonderful decorated
capitals, exemplars of Romanic sculpture which reveals a complex and heterogeneous
iconography.
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