Cetona

amid the Olives and Cypresses of the Sienese Countryside

The Name

Discarding the hypothesis of an Etruscan place name, it is probable that the village’s name comes from an early Christian parish church, mentioned in documents as “baptisterium Sancti Johannis de Queneto” or “de Queteno”, perhaps in reference to the Chieteno stream that flows just south of Cetona. In a text from 1275 this church is named as “plebs Sancti Johannis de Scetona”.

History

• 7th-6th cent. BC: Etruscan villages rise on the hills of Chiusi and Sarteano. The Cetona settlement is documented to be in the area of Camposervoli.

• 1207: first mention of the castle of Cetona.

• 1260: the village passes under the Republic of Orvieto, after a lengthy conflict with the Republic of Siena.

• 1418: the mercenary captain Braccio di Montone, lord of Perugia, conquers Cetona and then sells it to the Republic of Siena.

• 1556: loyal to Siena for almost a century and a half, the people of Cetona, decimated by pestilence and war, surrender without fighting to the imperial army in Tuscany when it appears at the city walls. The village is thus incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

• 1558-69: Grand Duke Cosimo I grants the Vitelli family Cetona in fief. With the marquisate of the Vitelli, a golden period begins for the town. Returning under the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Cetona shares its destiny until the Risorgimento and the Unification of Italy.

A Landscape of Serene Beauty

The wonder of Cetona lies in the naturalness with which the stone of its buildings blends with the almost pictorial delicateness of the Tuscan landscape.

One need only go up the narrow stone-paved streets, called “coste,” or enter inside the “citadel,” the ancient cluster of buildings overlooking the Renaissance square, to understand the poetry of this place, described as a “joy of serene forms” by Piero Grassini (Cetona e il suo ambiente, 1986), capable of evoking the lost ghosts of time, among medieval passions and naturalistic suggestions.

The countryside surrounding Cetona is so beautiful that it almost seems to be a painting of the ideal Renaissance landscape.

The walls once had three circuits, and today the round Rivellino tower, built in the mid-16th century, is the most important remaining trace of the third circuit. The urban structure bears the mark of the wars in the Middle Ages, when Siena and Orvieto battled each other for control of Cetona.

Toward the middle of the 1500s, the construction of the square today named after Garibaldi as the new access to the medieval village was the realization of a dream. The dreamer and driving force behind the Renaissance renewal of Cetona was Gian Luigi Vitelli, also known as Chiappino. Named marquis by the Medici, he wanted to play the part of the good governor by building this oval-shaped piazza, strangely much too big for such a tiny village.

Surrounding it are buildings from the 1600-1700s, including the old Palazzo Vitelli, unrecognizable from the outside, the former 16th-century church of the Santissima Annunziata (today a municipal exhibition space) and, hidden among the houses in one corner, the Church of San Michele Arcangelo, built in 1155 but renovated in the latter half of the 17th century. The arcade on the square was also designed by Vitelli, and was once used as a covered market.

Leaving the square and going past the Rivellino tower, there is a small street leading uphill to fine buildings such as the old Palazzo di Giustizia (or courthouse, but today the headquarters of the Carabinieri) and the 18th-century Palazzo Sgarroni on the right, and on the left the Palazzo Minutelli, today the Town Hall and, on the ground floor, the Civic Museum. Following the curve of the narrow street, it opens onto the small square with the prettiest church in town, the Collegiate Church of the Santissima Trinità.

Originally built in the 12th-13th century with a single nave in the Romanesque style, an aisle with a small outside portal was added on the left in 1571. The simple interior has some frescoes from the late 1400s, including an Assumption of the Virgin by the school of Pinturicchio (1454-1513).

Continuing uphill toward the Rocca, or fortress, one crosses the Rione delle Monache, with houses built along the site of the old defense wall. From the windows and doors, often stone-framed, the eye takes in the countryside and mountains, where the dominant colors are the silvery green of the olive trees and the dark green of the cypresses. Towering above is the Rocca (today privately owned, along with the adjoining park) with its surviving tower surrounded by the green of pines and cypresses.

This is the oldest heart of Cetona, built in the 10th century and transformed into a residence in the 16th century, with the construction of additional buildings. Going back down toward Piazza Garibaldi, one skirts along the second circuit of walls. From the arcade the square widens onto a small rise, behind which is the 18th century quarter constructed by order of the noble Salustio Terrosi, who had a villa built here in 1750, together with a small 15-hectare park, both of which, unfortunately, are also privately owned.

Just outside the village are the Convent of San Francesco, begun in 1212 and today the seat of the Comunità di Mondo X, and the hermitage of Santa Maria a Belverde, immersed in a woods of centuries-old ilexes and cypresses, under a cliff of travertine. Although it was probably founded sometime around the year 1000, the hermitage as it is today goes back to 1367 and has an original structure composed of three oratories set on two floors. Inside there are 14th-century frescoes by the Orvieto school.

Local Products

Olive oil and wine. Cetona is a member of the “Città del Vino” (with its Chianti dei Colli Senesi) and the “Città dell’Olio” associations.

Local dishes

Pici, a kind of thick spaghetti made by hand, served with l’aglione, a tomato sauce with lots of garlic and chili peppers, or else with a meat ragù.