History

A long tree-lined drive, carefully shaped, leads to the ancient complex of Scopeto. The place was, at the beginning of the 11th century, owned by the Sienese cathedral and then became the property of the Sozzini family, who maintained it until their extinction in the last century.

At the beginning of the 4th century some members of the Sozzini were already participating in the magistrature of the Sienese Republic, but it is only towards the end of the 15th century and during the 16th that Cornelio, Dario, Lelio, Camillo and Fausto assembled, with great enthusiasm, the theses for reform which spread throughout many scholarly academies.

Scopeto therefore became the meeting-place for all those who embraced these new ideas, and then it was instrumental during the final battles that led to the fall of the Florentine Republic (under the Medicee).

It would become, under Fausto Sozzini, the center for new theological conferences. The tower, which had been used for military defense, and all the other buildings which look out onto a large square, are therefore very much connected to the Sozzini family, which was responsible for the first transformation of Scopeto into a villa. At the base of the rectangular tower, we can still see the original structural reinforcement, while the upper part of the tower has undergone some reconstruction over time, except the north side where there are arched windows as well as openings for the use of bow and arrow and early firearms.

The exterior and interior of the other buildings, which were used for farm-work, still suggest the ancient flavour of patriarchal agricultural life. During the most recent renovations some rooms in the villa have been masterfully decorated with frescoes of floral design in the style of the 7th and 8th centuries.