San Fabiano Castle ( it, Castello San Fabiano) is a 13th-century castle and wine producing farm estate in

Monteroni d'Arbia Monteroni d'Arbia is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Siena in the Italy, Italian region Tuscany, located about south of Florence and about southeast of Siena in the area known as the Crete Senesi. It takes its names from the Arbia ...

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

, Italy, built by King

Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) i ...

. The church of San Fabiano on the estate dates from the year 867 and is dedicated to

Pope Fabian Pope Fabian ( la, Fabianus) was the bishop of Rome from 10 January 236 until his death on 20 January 250, succeeding Anterus. A dove is said to have descended on his head to mark him as the Holy Spirit's unexpected choice to become the next pope ...

, one of the first Christian martyrs killed in the

Coliseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...

. It is adjacent to two rivers, the Arbia and the Biena, and surrounded by of vineyards, oak forests,

durum wheat Durum wheat (), also called pasta wheat or macaroni wheat (''Triticum durum'' or ''Triticum turgidum'' subsp. ''durum''), is a Polyploid, tetraploid species of wheat. It is the second most cultivated species of wheat after common wheat, although ...

fields and corn fields. The estate's vineyard produces Bianco d'Arbia wine, a D.O.C. wine made with

Trebbiano Trebbiano is an Italian wine grape, one of the most widely planted grape varieties in the world. It gives good yields, but tends to yield undistinguished wine. It can be fresh and fruity, but does not keep long. Also known as ugni blanc, it h ...

grapes, and a red wine made from

Sangiovese Sangiovese (, also , , ) is a red Italian wine grape variety that derives its name from the Latin ''sanguis Jovis'', "the blood of Jupiter". Though it is the grape of most of central Italy from Romagna down to Lazio (the most widespread grape i ...

grapes. In total some 1,000 bottles per year were currently produced. When Count Giuseppe and Countess Giovanna

Fiorentini Engineer Filippo Fiorentini founded the Fiorentini & C. S.p.A. factory of excavators in 1919 in Rome, Italy. He imported and distributed construction equipment. During the time of Fascism, restrictions banned import and Ing. Fiorentini started his ...

bought the San Fabiano farm estate, there were some 300 people farming the land, producing 180,000 liters of wine yearly, breeding

Chianina The Chianina () is an Italian breed of large white cattle. It was formerly principally a draught breed; it is now raised mainly for beef. It is the largest and one of the oldest cattle breeds in the world. The ''bistecca alla fiorentina'' is ...

cows, producing meat for the local specialty, the Fiorentina steak, pigs, pheasants and chickens. In 1956, Fiorentini acquired better equipment and reduced the agricultural activities to a core business of crops. In 1963, the Italian government introduced drastic reforms of the agricultural regulations, requiring estate owners and landlords to hire the farmers working the land, and pay them a salary. The national reform ended the centennial rules of ''mezzadria'', a system where landowners could have farmers (''contadini'') living in the farmhouses and working the land, splitting the output of their work 50/50 with the landlord instead of paying rent and receiving salaries. As a result of the reforms, the farmers were forced to leave the land and twenty-five farmhouses around the castle were abandoned. The farmhouses remained unoccupied for some 30 years. Some of them have been restored by the Fiorentini brothers and some have been sold. In the 1970s, a socialist Italian government eased restrictions on import of Cuban cigars, which forced the closure of the Kentucky Tuscan Cigars manufacturing plant on the castle grounds.

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External links

San Fabiano Castle

Gazzetta di Siena: ''Un castello per passeggiare nella storia: "San Fabiano" e i suoi segreti'' - Giuseppe Saponaro, 25 May 2021
{{Coord, 43.2368, N, 11.4243, E, display=title Castles in Tuscany

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Further reading

External links