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Pratovecchio, the birthplace of Paolo Uccello, Tuscany

Pratovecchio, the birthplace of Paolo Uccello (1397-1475), is characterised by ancient streets and typical arcaded piazzas. Of great historical importance is the old Abbey of Santa Maria a Poppiena. Located on the outskirts of the village, it still has its original semicircular apse and beautiful bell tower.

The Monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista holds countless works of art, among them a Coronation of the Virgin by G. Bizzelli, a representative of the last affected generation of Mannerists, and an Assumption by the Master of Pratovecchio, where the Virgin is depicted inside a rayed aureole on a gold background surrounded by heads of cherubim.

Other works of art are kept in the Propositura (rectory) del Santissimo Nome di Gesù.

The National Park of the Casentino Forests, Monte Falterona and Campigna has its headquarters in the Palazzo Vigiani. Romena Castle (1.5 km), built around the year 1000, was the most strongly fortified of the Guidi residences, with 14 towers and three enclosure walls. Only the stronghold, the postern, the prison tower and the keep are still standing. Dante stayed at the castle while in exile, finding poetic inspiration for the Cantos of his Divine Comedy. Gabriele D’Annunzio was another who was not immune to the charm of this place. It was here that he composed Alcyone, the third book of Le Laudi. Below the feudal castle, which Dante mentions in the episode of Mastro Adamo (Inferno, Canto XXX), is one of the most remarkable examples of Romanesque architecture in the whole Arezzo area.

The Romanesque pieve (parish church) dedicated to St. Peter the Apostle, located on the Via Maior, is built on a primitive Etruscan and Roman sacred edifice. In the church, pilaster strips, small arches, small columns and windows with one light enrich the apse both inside and out, offering an example of elegance and refinement that is unusual in the buildings of this mountainous area. The finely decorated capitals are the most meaningful expression of Romanesque art in Casentino. Created from the fervent imaginations of the craftsmen who carved them with primitive techniques, they have a singular expressiveness, especially in the zoomorphic representations of humans.

A few kilometres away are the Church of San Biagio in Ama and the Church of Santi Vito e Modesto in Lonnano, in which the two saints are depicted in the 17th-century manner by Benedetto Veli. Also nearby is the Church of San Romolo in Valiana, which preserves an unusual and enigmatic Pietà by the Master of the Madonna Straus with an iconographic scheme that was widespread in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Farther along the road are the villages of Casalino and Valagnesi, which introduce us into the forest of Camaldoli.

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