The siege in memory of the Princess

• … and they used to rinse clothes in the Ombrone
• After September 8th 1943
• Between the twenties and thirties
• Corrado Capecchi, military internee
  • A medal (at last) for Corrado
  • The joke of the military internees
• Five places of Romanesque Carmignano
• Friar Bocci, at the beginning of the twentieth century
• From archaeologists to farmers
• Gino Balena
• Gino di Fico
• Historical shops in Carmignano
• In the name of Jesus and Saint Peter, may the sty go away
• Liberation day
• Matteucci, the ‘forgotten’ bishop
• Soldier in Greece
• Stories from a school notebook
• Stories of donkeys and jockeys
• Stories of mayors and town councils in Carmignano
• Stories of our home
• Stories of war and displaced persons
• The Battistina and other scary stories
• The colours of the rioni
• The Golden Roster
• The last sharecropper in Carmignano
• The siege in memory of the Princess
• The tree of liberty in Carmignano
• Ugo Contini Bonacossi
• Vittorio’s bicycles
• When the river Arno was fordable ..
• When they were digging pietra serena between Arno and Ombrone
• The colours of Carmignano, a small guide for tourists
  • Ancient churches and abbeys. Montalbano, a crossroads for pilgrims.
    • San Giusto al Pinone
    • San Jacopo in Capezzana
    • San Leonardo in Artimino
    • San Lorenzo in Montalbiolo
    • San Martino in Campo
    • San Michele amarcord
      • San Michele, the theater takes to the streets
• Itineraries for just a few days or more
  • Walking through history and nature
  • A Sunday devoted to the discovery of Artimino
  • A few words about the hamlets of Carmignano
  • The Fontina and Castagnati Lake
• Guides to download

In September in Poggio a Caiano – once part of the Carmignano municipality – the days of the siege take place. For an entire weekend, during the evening, the streets and squares near the Villa Medici “Ambra” come alive. There are food stalls typical to each festival, which in this case are competing with each other for the best set-up. Participants come from many volunteer groups, but sometimes they are just simple groups of friends. There is art, the antiques market and music: and not only the ballroom music that is a great hit in all street festivals, but also rock and jazz. But especially these days Poggio a Caiano can’t get by without the free distribution of wine that flows from the Mascherone fountain.
It seems almost a miracle, but it is only a way to remember a fact that has really happened: a gesture made centuries ago by Joan of Austria, wife of Francesco I de ‘Medici. The princess, enchanted by the beauty of the hills and the warmth of Poggio a Caiano’s people, wanted to reward them making good red wine flow from the fountain, which normally was used to quench the thirst of village people and today is inactive twelve months of a year. The fountain, however, is still there, beside one of the walls of the villa requested by Lorenzo Il The Magnificent in 1492 and designed, it is thought, by San Gallo.
The turnout for seeing the prodigy was so massive as to give the impression of a siege. And hence the name of the celebration. In more recent times, wine was flowing from Mascherone also at other exceptional events: the first anniversary of Victory (1919), the foundation of the Empire (1936), the celebration of the end of the World War II (1947). However in 1984 a group of Poggio a Caiano’s people strived in order to make, for at least two nights a year in September, the Mascherone fountain flow with good wine repeating the siege. And since then the event has been repeated every year, timely as always.