Castello Poggiarello

Castello Poggiarello is located at the foot of the Sienese Montagnola. The first traces and documentation referring to the Castle date back to year 1100 a.d. At that time only the embattled tower with a pyramid shaped base and archer windows were visible and the structure was used to provide military control of the territory to the southwest of the Siena Republic.

In the 1600s, the property became part of the Chigi family and was transformed into a fortified noble residence. A chapel was constructed and represents a fine example of Renaissance architecture attributed to Baldassarre Peruzzi. The Chapel was dedicated, 1678, to Saint Augustine in honor of Prince Augustine Chigi who had commissioned it.

The same Prince Augustine organized the large estate into unified smaller farms under the family’s control. The successors then continued making changes according to the living conditions of the time: maintaining, unaltered, the fortified characteristics of the property and placing a cover over the embattled towers. Additional farm houses were built for the workers and, at the same time, the production of wine from the vineyards and olive oil from the olive groves became the most important agricultural products for the estate.

The estate’s 12 hectares of terrain and wooded area have recently been brought back to life as a small organic farm:
8 hectares of vineyards, 2 hectares of olive groves and 2 hectares of woods.
The Vineyard’s red soil is mineral rich of iron and calcium carbonate (a mixture of sand, silt and clay).