Castello di Uzzano

The castle of Uzzano is located near by Greve in Chianti.
The History
The first lord of the castle was Ranuccio dei Migliorelli, whose descendants took the surname from Uzzano and did not distinguish themselves for particular merits until 1539, year of birth of Niccolò di Giovanni da Uzzano, one of Florence governors in the fourteenth century.
The Structure
Uzzano was a relatively small castle. In 1269 it was demolished by the Ghibellines. The defences had to be rebuilt in the first half of the fourteenth century, the settlement with a parish church dedicated to San Martino was remembered as a castrum with a wall and a door, as it was still presented at the end of the sixteenth century, in a design made for the Florentine judiciary of the Captains of the Guelph Party, and then turned into a villa during the following century. Today only some parts of the ancient fortifications remain, the rest was incorporated in a new grandiose building built to the design of Andrea di Cione, known as l'Orcagna, and later remodelled and expanded. In the current structure, still imposing, it is possible to identify only a stretch of the old walls of rectangular plan, made of small sandstone sketches arranged on regular and parallel rows. The presence of a rounded corner tower built with small sandstone stones, dating from the second half of the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century, is perhaps concurrent with the subsequent reconstructions of 1269. The bastion that supports and consolidates the lower part of the walls is certainly a later intervention. Of even more recent dating are all the windows open on the belt. The castle is known for having given its name to the family of the famous Niccolò di Giovanni da Uzzano, who in vain opposed, in the Florence of the early '400, the unstoppable ascent of Cosimo de' Medici.
Interesting facts
The vineyards and their wine production, registered under the name of Castello di Uzzano, have no connection with the villa that now belongs to a private family. The current wine is produced and sold in a cellar near the bridge on the outskirts of Greve on the road leading to Florence.