The investigations of preventive archaeology conducted on the occasion if the consolidation and enhancement of the Belfiore Tower in Capolona have revealed part of the homonymous castle, previously known only through archival documents, of which only a tower, a wall and a corner turret were visible in a ruinous state.
The castle was first mentioned in a diploma by Frederick I on June 25, 1161, assigning it to the abbey of San Gennaro in Capolona, and it is explicitly mentioned in 1385 when, after it had been ceded to Florence on March 26, the Florentine Republic sent its inspectors who described it as 'a castle with a tower'.
The survey, carried out on several occasion from October 2021 to August 2022, revealed a monumental external wall circuit with turrets at the four corners and an articulated series of internal rooms, of which the stone structures with thresholds and jambs of the relative openings are preserved in elevetion. Pre-existing structures have also been identified, the nature and dating of which are still to be defined. In this first phase, the excavation has been finalized to the definition of the extension and the planimetry of the structures, but the Municipality and the Superintendence hope to resume the investigations as soon as possible, with a shared research and restoration project, in order to make the site open and visitable to the public.
The recently completed project, financed with funds from the GAL Consorzio Appennino Aretino and with the Municipality's own funds, was designed and directed by the architect Antonio Bennati. The archaeological supervision and excavation were carried out by the San Gallo Archaeological Laboratories Cooperative of Florence, with the scientific direction of Dr. Ada Salvi of the Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape Superintendency for the provinces of Siena, Grosseto and Arezzo, and with the involvement of Dr. Riccardo Bargiacchi and Dr. Dimitri Pizzuto.