Its history and its culture are campaigning
From a small treasure chest full of history, where towers and houses, arches and stairways of rare and ancient beauty mix in perfect harmony, the bell towers and crenellated towers of the castle emerge which, from above, watch over the red tiled roofs and the terraces overlooking the Ombrone valley and as far as the sea, which shines on tense days of the north wind and makes you feel the fresh and fragrant breeze of the pine forest in summer.
Campagnatico stands on the highest hill, surrounded by slopes of olive trees and patches of oaks, and small segments of the wall peep out from the jagged hills and can be glimpsed for kilometers, to whet the curiosity and amaze when the village is suddenly detected uncertainty of the walls.
And if the visitor is struck by the audacious arches and facades of ancient palaces and churches, it is inside the buildings that the most precious jewels are kept and admired. Large and marvelous frescoes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, by famous artists of the Sienese school, adore the apse of the Sanctuary of Santissima Maria Delle Grazie at the entrance to the town; of the small ancient church inside the walls, adjacent to the square and today used as a conference room, and of the basilica of S. Giovanni Battista in the highest part of the village.
Campagnatico has risen from the highest hill for at least a thousand years, as evidenced by illustrious quotations, such as that of Dante Alighieri in canto eleven of the Purgatory, and the Roman remains of the Pieve Vecchia, a few hundred meters from the town. and from the promenade facing east, between olive groves and vineyards, on clear days of the north wind, the sea can be glimpsed between the high cliffs of the Uccellina park and up to the Argentario promontory, mitigating with its fresh and fragrant breeze of pine forest, the bursting Maremma summer, while, to the north, the slopes of Monte Amiata whiten.
From the territory of the Municipality of Campagnatico you can easily wander over the entire territory of the Maremma, Terme, Mare, Montagna and areas of historical importance can be easily reached, the Maremma encompasses a vast territory of great historical interest, and Campagnatico can be considered the heart of the Maremma, the center from which to leave for excursions of both historical and naturalistic interest.
Campagnatico belonged to the Aldobrandeschi counts from the year 973 until about the middle of the thirteenth century, when the Republic of Siena started the process of subjugating this castle by setting up a city officer and a tower guard there in 1249. The assassination of Umberto Aldobrandeschi dates back to the same period, reported by Dante in the eleventh canto of Purgatory (verses 52-72)
The Sienese authority is opposed by the dominion of the Tolomei and Visconti di Campiglia. Deo Tolomei was assigned in 1274 the possession of the Municipality of Siena for 20 thousand lire by the widow of Deo. Between 1296 and 1299 the remaining 8/30 of the castle remained in the Visconti family.
In 1317, Siena ceded the domain of Campagnatico to the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala as a guarantee for a loan which was later redeemed in 1339. In 1363, the castle was damaged by the Cappelletto company.
At the beginning of the inhabited area, in via del Convento is the church of the misericordia formerly the parish church of Santa Maria delle Grazie with an adjoining convent. The building, currently closed, is in an accentuated state of decay. Already in the year 1000 there was a cell on the site, a chapel at the service of a monastic community; it was incorporated into the abyssal area of the current building during the transformation that took place at the end of the sixteenth century, which consists in the construction of a larger building with a Latin cross.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the church, which was in a state of decay, was restored by G. Monti da Campagnatico, with the replacement of the trussed roof, the construction of a supporting arch, the opening of the rectangular windows on the facade and the execution of the stucco decorations inside. In 1806, the lateral entrance portal was opened and the following year the high altar was built by Pietro Cremoni. His are also the organ, the pulpit and the choir of neoclassical style.
Further restoration interventions were carried out at the beginning of the twentieth century with the consolidation of the external walls using tie rods. The building with a Latin cross plan has a single nave covered in a shed with wooden beams, a raised presbytery and an apse flanked by chapels covered with brick vaults. Entering on the right you will notice a stem font of Tuscan manufacture dating back to 1578, which bears the coat of arms of the municipality of Campagnatico. In the altar on the right there is an Annunciation with the Eternal Father between Santa Agnese and San Bartolomeo; the work is attributable to Domenico Monti, a Sienese painter of the early nineteenth century and a painting depicting the Madonna and Child between Saints Agostino, Caterina da Siena and Francesco, from the Sienese school of the first half of the seventeenth century. In the apse there are the imprints of the pictorial cycle of Cristoforo di Bondoccio and Meo di Pero, restored and temporarily placed in the church of San Giovanni Battista. Leaning against the left side of the church was the convent now in a state of neglect. It is a building with an articulated quadrangular plan in stone with some redevelopments in brick characterized by a scarp wall and a round arched access portal in stone ashlars.
