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Cetona welcomes its visitors through Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, a large rectangular space built in the mid-sixteenth century by Marquis Vitelli, who wanted to build a new entrance to the medieval village, bring a breath of fresh air the existing architecture. The Church of San Michele Arcangelo and the deconsecrated Ss. Annunziata, the Rivellino and the Terrosi and Vitelli palazzos emerge from the homogeneous building facades..

 

The former Church of Ss. Annunziata was built in the public piazza in the lower part of the village, where a new settlement was developed when Cetona was conceded by Grand Duke as a fief to the Vitelli family with the title of marquisate, in 1558. The façade has lost its original appearance but the sixteenth-century entrance remains. The rich altar features a painting of the Annunciation dated 1648, a copy of an older painting, which probably replaced the original altarpiece. The facility currently hosts cultural events and shows. The Municipal Tourist Information Office is located in the former sacristy.

 

Built in the mid-sixteenth century, the Palazzo Minutelli has housed the town hall since 1876. The palace contains well-preserved and highly valuable artistic and historical spaces, with travertine portals and cornices. Within the palace the rooms decorated by nineteenth-century painter Antonio Castelletti are worth visiting, including the current Cabinet of the Mayor which features fine stucco work, the Council Chamber with mythological paintings created around the mid-nineteenth century, the Historical Archives and the Public Library. The palace also houses the Balestrieri Studio, a space containing paintings, prints, photographs, original documents and memorabilia dedicated to the Cetonese painter who, in 1900, won the Gold Medal in the Italian section of the Universal Exhibition in Paris with his famous work Beethoven.

 

The Collegiate Church of Ss. Trinità, built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, overlooks the piazza adjacent to the outer perimeter of the fortress walls. Inside you can admire several frescoes, including the Assumption of the Virgin and the Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist (the saint on the right side has been lost) dating back to the early sixteenth century.

 

Villa La Vagnola, dating back to the late 1700s, was strongly desired by its owner, the Cetonese nobleman Sallustio Terrosi, on the occasion of his marriage to Maria Antonietta Vagnoli. Around the building is a park covering over fifteen hectares and housing attractions and embellishments such as an amphitheatre with over two hundred seats, the Roccolo for hunting and the Casina Turca with its frescoes. This last one is located on a terrace, in the centre of which is an obelisk bearing an inscription in memory of the Cetonese scholar Luca Contile. From here wind perfectly gravel-lined boulevards, lined with English groves, gardens, vegetable gardens and terraces with olive groves, holm oaks and numerous varieties of plants. In line with the fashion of the time, Terrosi and his descendants took care of the collection of archaeological finds from the excavations carried out on their properties, and thus the park was enriched with Etruscan sarcophagi and urns, ancient and classical statues. Even an Etruscan tomb discovered around Pania (Chiusi) was rebuilt, after being dismantled and taken from the site of the discovery. Villa can be visited with a guide, by appointment.

 

The eighteenth-century Villa La Palazzina is surrounded by a large park and adorned with an Italian-style hanging garden with a panoramic view of the surrounding hills. The space contains a collection of roses and peonies and is dotted with palm trees. Two tree-lined avenues lead from the garden to the park, also created in the eighteenth-century, where numerous pines, cypresses, linden trees, laurels and holm oaks can be found. An exedra of cypress trees acts as a background for a small hexagonal tower, externally and internally decorated with paintings of eighteenth-century inspiration. In the park there is an ancient ice house dug into the ground, about 10 metres deep, covered by a pyramid built with square travertine blocks. Parallel avenues continue towards the mixed forest with oaks, arbutus, junipers, hornbeams, hollies, firs, cypresses and pines.
The Villa can be visited with a guide, by appointment.

 

Near the village of Cetona, the Convent of St. Francis is immersed in a beautiful natural setting. Founded according to tradition in 1212, it now features a patchwork of buildings dating from multiple periods. Two highly valuable panel paintings are preserved within the convent, a Madonna and Child on a gold background, attributed to Sano di Pietro and Madonna of the Goldfinch, which was the central part of a triptych, now attributed to Girolamo di Benvenuto.

 

The Hermitage of Santa Maria in Belverde was built at the foot of an imposing travertine cliff where, according to tradition, St. Francis withdrew into an adjoining cave in prayer. The adjacent church has an original structure consisting of three oratories on two levels, decorated with important frescoes from the fourteenth century. The two complexes are now the headquarters of Comunità Mondo X

 

The Church of St. Lazarus, dating back to the sixteenth century was closed for worship in 1962. After a recent renovation, the ex-church is now home to cultural and recreational activities and has become the headquarters of associations and a small and active library. Inside, there is a large painting from the seventeenth century, representing the Resurrection of St. Lazarus, placed in the main altar.

 

IIn Piazza Vittorio Veneto, in front of the main facade of the Church of Saint Lazarus, lies the First World War Memorial created by the Florentine artist Raffaello Romanelli and inaugurated in 1924. The monument has a quadrangular base with ornamental elements, and a sculpture topped by an obelisk depicting a patrol carrying out a daring attack, and a dying soldier in the foreground greeted by a Roman warrior holding a flag.

 

The Chapel of San Giuseppe al Tamburino is a small place of worship built during the first decades of the sixteenth century, perhaps as a votive offering during an epidemic. The back wall features a fresco depicting an Annunciation on the sides and Madonna and Child enthroned with St. John the Baptist and St. Joseph in the central part.

 

Camporsevoli, a small fortified village a few kilometres from the town of Piazze, has always been considered a strategic site. It is a privileged point of observation and also provides excellent visibility of the Chiana Valley that stretches beneath Mount Cetona. Original sections of the defensive castle can still be seen in the village, but its history is much older. As far back as 2,500 years ago there was an Etruscan settlement, as evidenced by the numerous finds unearthed in the surrounding countryside. The villa, built in the nineteenth century on the ruins of the medieval castle, is open to the public for concerts and other events.