Pubblicazione della relazione “Reuse of an ancient country-house in Tuscany” (5th International Conference on Hazards and Modern Heritage of Sarajevo del 22-24 aprile 2013) [pubblicato negli atti del convegno alle pagg. 479-492 degli atti, Vo. 2, No. 1, 2013, ISSN 2232-965X, technical editor Erdin Salihovic e Mevludin Zecevic]

Immersed in a verdant countryside, among vineyards and olive groves that offer fine wine and fine oil, Vinci is situated on the slopes of Montalbano, an enchanting hilly massif between the provinces of Florence and Pistoia, and therefore in the heart of Tuscany, at a short distance from the major cities of Art in the region (Florence, Pisa, Pistoia, Lucca, Siena).
It can be assumed that originally there was no difference of organization between the different people who lived in the countryside between Florence and Vinci, but at least from the second half of 1200 some parts of the Florentine countryside, including Vinci, began to be defined in the documents with the title of town, an indication that they had acquired an international more complex organization, involving representative bodies of local government and courts.
The main cause that led people in some places to adopt an internal organization, more detailed and complex, has been identified in the phenomenon of, or in the construction of walls, sometimes desired by the inhabitants themselves, but more often decided by feudal lords or municipalities that held the jurisdiction over the area. .
The walls required operating and maintenance costs, in turn implying the presence of decision-making bodies, able to tax the population and the development of statutes; that would set rules and procedures. The first statutes of Vinci were written in 1383.
A decisive moment for the castle’s structure settlement can be considered the period between the 30s and 60s of the fourteenth century. In a relatively short period of time the castles of Montalbano, including Vinci, walls were rebuilt, towers were restored, fences repaired and expanded, ditches cleaned; restoring efficiency defenses were restored by organizing a continuous system of garrisons of the western boundary of the county. The castle of Vinci used its natural morphology as a defensive structure of primary importance; in the city wall running along the top of the hills in a ovoid pattern were church Holy Cross and various other buildings used as homes, barns and warehouses.
The pattern of settlement in Vinci is ordered by the rock from which the traffic moves longitudinally elongated follows the topography of the hill top and is enclosed by the oval perimeter of the walls with their “ripe”, at the foot of the castle, on the west side, ran the ” gora “which fed the mill, essential service structure for the agricultural community that was brewing within the circuit of the castle. The birth of the market place dates from the late fourteenth century, the square that opened at the foot of the castle, at the intersection of the director and from Empoli with the road network that, following the circuit of the town walls, moved towards north to the ridge of Montalbano; the square was the loggia of the municipality in which the transactions/occurred.
The extra mural village of Vinci, developed in the early decades of the fifteenth century, is the most bustling area because of the concentration of homes and businesses in Leonardo’s population. The houses and cottages of the village, unlike those within the castle walls, could have orchards and vegetable gardens, and some were equipped workshops and laboratories. Even some noble Florentine families came to Vinci with civil offices (mayor), obtained to be present on the site market; the Ridolfi had a house, a tavern and a butcher, the Pitti had a dwelling house and three cottages or farmhouses and the arms possessed several houses and shops; finally Alessandri, among the first citizens of Florence to be present in the territory Leonardo. In 1424 the territory of Vinci was merged with the town hall of Cerreto Guidi and the residence of the mayor was set at Vinci in 1475; the residence was alternated between the two centers, and after many vicissitudes in 1545 he settled permanently alternating residence of mayor.
In 1774 the town of Vinci was abolished with the subsequent aggregation of its territory to the municipality of Cerreto Guidi. .
Although deprived of the administrative role, the town of Vinci continued to be a coordinating an area that had maintained the quality of production, which is confirmed for example by owned by the city described in 1779 as “a mill, a mill place below the ditches of Vinci “and” a frantoio hanged to aforesaid mill. ” While the town does not seem to record evident changes, there seems to be a process of affirmation of family groups who increasing its presence in and out the center of Vinci, in 1808, with the beginning of the French domination, the local administration in Vinci as the town hall is restored. At the end of the French domination in 1814, Vinci is confirmed in the capital of the municipality. .
“The town of Vinci consists of two towers and a bunch of houses that are tightened around it. One of the towers is modern and the other one is old. The houses belonging to the old Vinci recall hat could have been the character in the past and the modern houses look like modern homes. ” This reads the “Trail Vinci”, the journal of a visit to the birthplace of Leonardo completed in the spring of 1872 by the expert of leonardo, Gustavo Uzielli and the painter Telemaco Signorini; it’s the very description of the town. In the first decade of the ‘900 began the first leonardian celebrations and the major expressly the new destination of the fortress as the seat assigned to host the Library and the Museum of Leonardo.

In the mid-30s took off a more articulated and complex project that involved the entire historical center (over the House of Anchiano), with the explicit intent to clarify and concretize the idea of ​​authenticity and historical identity of Vinci as the “birthplace of Leonardo.”
After World War II, the architect Arata, a member of the National Committee formed in 1947 to promote and organize the celebrations of the fifth centenary of the birth of Leonardo, designed the layout of Freedom Square (providing the location of the “Monument to Leonardo”) and the source baptism in the Church of Santa Croce.
On 15 April 1953, at the conclusion of the celebrations mentioned above, was inaugurated the first unit of the Leonardo Museum in Vinci, extended with a new production in 1986. Uzielli expected more than a century ago, the Library and the Museum could become the “real” monument to Leonardo in his land. The square Guidi, designed by Mimmo Paladino, overlooks Vinci: Palazzina Uzielli houses the office of Leonardo Museum; the two sections of the construction equipment and machinery of textile manufacturing. The path continues into the Castle of the Counts Guidi which displays over 60 models of Leonardo’s machines, each of which presented with specific references to the drawings and handwritten notes by the artist: the military machines and instruments of the great scientific wooden model of the crane turntable in the lantern room of the Podestà and the full-scale machines for the movement in air, water and earth.
In the panoramic square behind the entrance to the Castel there is the large wooden sculpture of Mario Ceroli (The Man from Vinci, 1987), which interprets and displays the image of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo. Within the perimeter wall of the ancient castle complete the itinerary of visiting the church of Santa Croce with the old baptismal where leonardo was probably baptized and the Leonardo Library, documentation center specialized in the works of Leonardo, which owns the facsimile reproduction of all the manuscripts and drawings by Leonardo, plus all the printed editions of his works. Along the way towards Montalbano , there are old cellars of the castle of Vinci, which are now the Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci, a private collection that contains documents of Leonardo. In the central square of Liberty there is a bronze equestrian statue (1997) by the sculptor Nina Akamu, inspired by the numerous drawings of horses Leonardo.
From the city center heading north along the old path through the olive groves, called “green road” or the panoramic route, we reach Anchiano, the birthplace of Leonardo, a typical rural dwelling of the fifteenth c. of the Tuscan countryside, in which it is traditionally certificate that Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, and where it can be assumed that he returned to find his brothers in the early sixteenth century, when he devoted himself to studies and projects in the neighborhood of Vinci.
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