Castello di Montauto

The Montauto Castle is located in Impruneta, at 124 Via di Montauto. It was built in the year 980 for defensive purposes by the powerful Gherardini family. Between the 13th and 14th centuries it was at the center of fierce disputes between the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines and later between White Guelphs and Black Guelphs.

It rises at 168 m above sea level on the summit of a conical hill overlooking the Chiantigiana road. The oldest core is the tall 13th-century tower, still existing in the center of the property, surrounded by a sort of rustic keep, with exposed stone facing. Around 1550 the building was expanded and transformed into a suburban villa for the Florentine merchant Bastiano Ciaìni, who commissioned the architect Domenico di Baccio d'Agnolo. At that time the numerous grotesque decorations of the interiors and of the loggia on the south side date from, while the north one is in a more sober Florentine style, with columns and a serliana outlined in pietra serena. The Niccolini built the loggia in pietra serena on the west side.

The toponym derives from a contraction of "Monte Acuto".