Legends


 

Abbadia San Salvatore

The leggend of King Ranchis

"... one morning... Ranchis went out, all alone, along an unknown and unexplored path...
at a certain point, on a hill top further away, a beautiful hind appeared...
he followed her desperatly, she was running ahead and he was right behind...until they came 
to a marvellous plain, with tender grasses and flowers under the chestnut trees...
the deer stopped just under the biggest of the trees... bu the chestnut tree immediately 
sparkled...and a coming from who knows where said:-Don't kill, it cried out-don't kill, 
oh king, if you treasure the crown of the Celestial Kingdom-...Ranchis... saw that on the 
chestnut tree, as if on a throne, was a King different from all the kings on earth.. 
Who are you? Who are you?  he whispered with the little voice he could find, Ranchis, 
still on the ground without moving.  I am the king of all kings, the master of all 
masters I order you, oh Ranchis, to build in place a church in my honor!...
From that day on the hunting king... put on a coarse habit, put a leather belt at
his waist and started to big out the foundations around the lucky chestnut tree..
and since it was not very hygienic to be in small wooden cells, they decided to build 
an abbey next to the church:  and so the abbey become strong and marvellous..."


Buonconvento

Villa of Rondinella

"... The villa is just outside the town of Buonconvento, on an lonely hill, 
along the S.S. n.2 Cassia, the road which once was the "Via Francigena", an important 
and ancient way of transit from Rome to the rest of Europe; the house was build around 
the year 1910 in art-noveau stile, by a well-off young man, just over  twenty, 
with a good education and also unlucky.  It seems the the Rondinella was dedicated 
to a localy unknown woman, maybe to crown a lovers dream, which the unlucky young man 
could not make come true and the construction of the Villa had finished all the economic 
resources he had  and obliged him to sell it to an uncle before even being completed.  
Or for the bad-luck that the young man had, or for the imaginary figure of 
the unknown woman, the imagination of the locals at the time created the belief the 
the Rondinella was haunted by ghosts..." 
(Nello Carli).


Buonconvento

The death of Arrigo VII

"Arrigo VII of Luxemburg gave his last breath in Buonconvento the 24 August 1313:  
although the emperor's disease led back to the time of the siege, his death came as 
a surprise.  Rumors of a possible poisoning quickly sread out.  
The story was that a Dominican frair had poisoned him with a host during comunion.  
Only several years after his death some of the people who had been to his side and 
John King of Boemia, son of Arrigo VII, confermed the the death was cause by the sickness." 
(Nello Carli).


Castelnuovo Berardenga

Pagliarese The magic of Pagliarese

At the landhouse of Pagliarese, according to local tales, was a woman with the 
capability of healing factures and  the strangest diseases.  She was a kind and gentle witch, 
she had magic hands and there were always many clients who waited for hours for their turn. 
(Biliorsi, L'ora delle streghe)


Chiusdino

The marsh of Sant'Andrea The marsh of the Witches

South of Chiusdino there is the marsh of Sant'Andrea, a place where, according to the tales, 
the witches would go to hide.  " the Witches would hide in the marsh or in the woods...
the tales tell about many unlucky people who had disappeared without leaving any trace.