EyeItalia

Pignano is an ancient borghetto (hamlet) perched on a hilltop five hundred metres above sea-level between two fertile valleys whose streams feed the river Era. On a clear day, one can just see the Tyrrhenian Sea and the island of Corsica on the western horizon. For millenia, the local quarries have been a source of alabaster and building stone—tufa–and the farmlands of grain, fruit, olive oil, and wine. The woods still teem with game. And with a little luck and a superior dog, one finds, in autumn, exceptionally fat and fragrant white truffles.

Between Pignano and the sea (about equidistant from Florence and Pisa) lies Volterra–the ancient Etruscan metropolis of Velathri–and one of Tuscany’s most elegant and beguiling medieval hilltowns. The mossy, misshapen hump of earth between our terrace and its ochre spires was once the site of a flourishing Etruscan settlement, Monte Voltraia. Some authorities believe the hamlet’s name is a Latinized version of the Etruscan “Pisenanu”. Others suggest that Pignano was named for the Roman Plinius, one of many legionaries who received a portion of land when the armies of Julius Caesar conquered the Etruscans in the first century, B.C.

By the early eleventh century A.D., Pignano was the site of a fortified villa that grew into a castle. The oldest surviving document referring to the property is a deed of sale dated January 19, 1139, and signed by Pignano’s lord, Ranieri di Ugoccione, a scion of the powerful Pannochieschi family, transferring the fiefdom to Odalmario Ademari, Bishop of Volterra. This prelate oversaw the construction of a handsome Romanesque parish church– the Pieve di San Bartolomeo Apostolo–which has been used almost continuously ever since, and is still sanctified.

In the century that followed, Pignano became the most important settlement in the now vanished Tuscan city-state of Monte Voltraio. On August 8, 1214, the religious and chivalric Order of Saint Anthony founded a hospital here. But shortly thereafter, the Pignanese were embroiled in a bitter war between the Volterrans and Bishop Pagan (another Pannochieschi scion), both rivals for control of the city of Rocca Monte Voltraio. It was overrun by the Volterrans in 1218, as was Pignano, and other satellite communities–all sacked, then put to fire and sword, and razed to the ground.

By 1246, however, (when the church and a new castle were built), a restored Pignano had become Volterra’s prized bailiwick. Some ramparts dating from that era—on the southeast side of the present villa—have survived for seven turbulent centuries. Apparently, the hospital was also reestablished, and remained in operation for the next two hundred and fifty years. And the Monte Voltraian baptismal font—a key artifact of civic and religious life—was transferred to the Pignano church, which became an important local center of worship and community. (Pignano’s human resources, one should note, were never quite commensurate with its political, geographic, and social importance. There were only about thirty inhabitants living in the hamlet when the great plague of 1348 began to decimate Tuscany, and by the time it had run its course, only thirteen survived.)

Yet another reversal of fortune occured in 1472, when Volterra was conquered and assimilated into the dukedom of Florence. The rule of the Florentine Signoria put an end to local warfare, and obviated Pignano’s utility as a fortress. At the same time, however, it gained prominence as an agricultural and trading centre. Artisans and farmers moved back into the newly pacified countryside, and the castle became a busy and prosperous hub for their activities. Thus another era began.

By the late seventeeth century, records indicate that Pignano was owned by the Incontri family, relatively recent Volterran nobility, whose fortune was originally made in the medieval wool trade. The second Incontri lord of Pignano, the Marchese Ludovico, decided to transform the hamlet from a working manor into a palatial country seat. The beautiful gardens he planted on the west side of the present villa (a wing that is called Ponente, for the setting sun) are being restored. New housing– stone case coloniche—were built for the support staff and the sharecroppers who farmed the lords’ extensive domains. (They house some of Pignano’s working residents today.)

The Incontris’ somewhat grandiose architectural upgrading continued into the nineteenth century. By 1822, when Ludovico inscribed his name on the facade, the villa’s exterior had taken its current form: two long wings of high-ceilinged reception rooms and frescoed chambers around a central courtyard–although it took another forty years to finish decorating the interiors. Throughout that period, there were from two hundred to seven hundred inhabitants.

The great social and economic changes that shook all of Italy from the late 1800s until the end of the Second World War could not but demoralize Pignano, too. As Italians in droves left the countryside to seek work in cities, the hamlet reverted to its plague-era size: some thirty inhabitants. And the lords divested themselves of land to pay for their taxes and pleasures. By the early 1960s, the estate had been reduced to some two hundred and fifty hectares.

In recent times, Pignano has had several incarnations. The villa was divided down the middle, and the two sides walled off. A noble family based in Milan owned the eastern wing (Levante, named for the rising sun), which they used as a hunting lodge, and as an escape from the turbulent political climate of the 1970s. A Milanese businessman bought Ponente, divided up the floor plan into a warren of bedrooms, and rented them to tourists. The current owners acquired both wings in 2001 and embarked on an ambitious plan to restore and reconnect them. The conversion is in its final stages, though much remains to be done. Our goal is to create an ecologically self-sustaining community with a floating population of fifteen to twenty primary residents, who will work the land and host creative, spiritual, and artistic workshops, as well as festivities and conferences. We pride ourselves on fueling the villa, its outbuildings, and pool, with solar energy and firewood from seventy-five hectares of sustainably harvested forestland. The vineyards and olive groves uprooted by former owners or killed by frost are slowly being replanted. We also plan to create an organic farm. In 2005, we inaugurated a new Montessori school which is housed in a restored eighteenth century farmhouse. It already has twelve pupils from two to six years old. So Pignano rises once again. It is a place of vite nuove. And we welcome our guests and volunteers of every provenance and generation to embark here on their own.

_ B. Mathews, L. Cazac & J. Thurman (editors)