Researches still on the way and therefore still in need of due verifications, would put the origins of the first tower of Pratale as far back as the year 1027.
A document kept on the shelves in the State Archives of Siena would fix to that date the order to erect a watch-out tower.
Signatory of those instructions was a Lady, very important at the time in the Montagnola Senese and who covered an important role in the history of Siena and the surrounding area: Ava di Montemaggio.
Montemaggio is the highest mountain of the small massif that crowns the western side of Siena’s territory and Ava resided just there together with her husband, a nobleman (Lambard of origins and Lambardi by name), and their court.
In 1001 Ava becomes famous for founding the Abbey of Badia a Isola (the Abbey in the island – because it was built on a slight rise of the ground, above the surrounding marshes. Like an island circled by water). To Ava and the Cistercians monks that settled in the Abbey was also due the first land reclamation and drainage of the marshes, that turned the barren land into a fertile plain.
Still clearly visible today on the North side of the building, the original tower presented a square plant and was certainly much taller than today. Also, at the time of its construction it wouldn’t have had any ramparts at its base. These would have been added subsequently (XIII-XIV C.).
The need for a watch out tower is probably ascribable to the fact that the area is positioned closed to the border between the territories of Siena and Florence but also between the jurisdiction of the Dioceses of Siena and that of Volterra. In addition to that two more reasons appear to have led to such a decision: here was the gate leading from the Maremma toward Siena and the fact that the whole area was, and to a certain extent still is, dotted with quarries. Therefore, a military outpost to keep a vigil eye over a territory very important strategically but also economically.
Since the very first stages at the beginning of the building-site there would have been, scattered around, some wooden shacks to house the many labourers and workers. Those would subsequently become home for the families of the soldiers here posted. Every family settling would have started to grow some vegetables creating an orchard, to breed chickens and rabbits, probably some sheep, to provide food for themselves. That is how Pratale was born.
Studies undertaken by the Department of History from the University of Siena, taking into consideration materials and techniques, have established that the long addition Southward of the original tower that has totally changed its aspect and turned it into a Palazzone (so typical of the Lambard’s building style), has taken place no more than 60/70 years later. That would lead us to a simple calculation, although rather approximate:
1027 the order is issued; by 1050 the tower was up and in use; in the early years of XII C. the second part was added, and the earlier tower lowered.
Beside the architectural habits what could have brought to the need for such a massive construction?
Again we must enter the grounds of speculations but yet sustained by a number of evidence found in later documents.
Were those years of great ferments and deep changes. Population started to increase and the agriculture started to take a different aspect: it had to produce enough not only to sustain the farmers themselves, but also the growing population of cities as well as paying the land owners those farmers were working for. Other points too, are to be taken into consideration. Widening cities were more and more in demand of building materials (wood, stone, marble, lime etc) for the important palaces, for the mansions of rich merchants, for the new and larger churches and for the new and important residence of bishops and clergy as a whole.
It is now evident how important were the quarries we mentioned earlier. And this importance is more clear if we give a closer look to the way a quarry worked and was organised.
Life of a quarry starts with the appointment of a Master Stonemason. As part of his job he had to choose and recruit a number of aids, provide a variety of labourers and, finally, find a proper site to start quarrying.
Amongst the qualities and knowledge a Master Stonemason was supposed to produce were that of a good geologist, a good organizer of work forces (today’s “human resources”), a good stone carver, a good architect, a good designer, and a good manager and planner. He had to be good also as economist and accountant as he had to provide board and lodging, and of course a salary, to all his labourers out of the compensation he has agreed when appointed. Not small a task all in all.
Beside the specific labourers, such as stone carver, diggers etc. were living and working together also some blacksmiths, to provide constantly new and sharp tools, carpenters, to the same purpose for mallets, saws, wedges etc, other people with the job of providing wood and guarding the fires (that of the furnace for the production of lime, and those that were used for breaking large boulders). Finally there were scores of helpers carrying the large amount of water needed to lubricate the saws or to keep moist the wedges.
Once a large piece of marble was finally extracted, stonemasons started to work at it cutting slabs, shaping key stones, capitals, columns of different sizes, carving portion of friezes etc.. In fact most of the work was to be done at the excavation site itself, rather than at the building site where those artefacts were to be used.
That was because it was much easier, faster and most cost effective to transport small pieces rather than a large block; What if it breaks at the building site after a difficult, and dangerous, descent from the slopes of a mountain and a lengthy transportation on an oxen drown cart? Further more, should it break in the quarry, the fragments could be utilized for smaller architectural elements, securing in that way that all the material extracted would be used and nothing would go wasted.
But we haven’t answered yet the earlier question: what could have brought the Lambardi to enlarge the original tower and turn it into a proper palace?
Let’s dare an answer. The most likely thing to have happened is that the settlement at Pratale started to grew and the community quickly widen.
It soon was no longer composed only by the families, and wives and children of the soldiers assigned to the outpost. Other people gathered here to join the original community, most likely seeking the protection offered by a settlement belonging to an important and powerful family. In turn, the growing of the community brought to an increased need for craftsman providing and selling products and materials, making and repairing tools etc. attracting more and more people.
The first tiny settlement had become a proper borough and therefore in need for more control, in both, social and economical terms.
Another reason for Pratale to become more important is due to the fact that this little community had chosen to settle in a place that stood right onto what subsequently became the Via Francigena.
The “Francigena” took its name from the fact that it led pilgrims from France to Rome. It really started from Canterbury, and went further South, in Apulia, toward the ports where the ships would take this mass of people to Palestine.
At the time, beside the famous Roman Consular roads, specifically in the area the “Cassia”, the route from one place to another was not conceived as a single stretch form A to B. It was generally a whole network of trails, tracks, mule paths and path-ways. The use of one or the other was dictated by its viability determined by weather condition. In summer was preferred the way along the slopes or at the top of hills in woodland because less sunny, while in winter the course at the bottom of the valleys was chosen because safer and without snow.
But also the presence of bandits in the forest would induce to a change of route, as well as floods, or swollen creeks and rivers, fallen bridges, and so on. Some other times a change in the course could be dictated by the presence of a particularly nasty Lord requiring some kind of toll to all users of the highway.
Pratale stood onto one of these paths, and it is certain it represented an hospitable and secure resting place to travellers and pilgrims alike. Yet again, one more reason for the presence of a strong and well settled Authority of some kind.
Another document tell us about the importance of this place and of its connections with the lapidary activities. Once again in the State Archives of Siena, we found a tiny parchment, catalogued but fallen into oblivious, and unpublished until our finding.
It is the original manuscript minute, certified by Public Notary, of a meeting that took place in one of the rooms of the tower.
It happened on the night of December 21st, 1256. The elected representatives of the populations of Pratale, Tonni and Raniere met here for an important appointment. The three communities, already united under the single Parish of San Quirico, in Tonni, gathered to declare themselves “Free Commune”, elect their own Mayor and submit to the power and laws of Siena to which they swore allegiance.
It is of not surprise, many boroughs and villages took this move in that period throughout Italy, but it shows the importance reached by the place.
The peculiarity of this document laid in the presence of many masters amongst the signatories of the act. Further researches brought us to verify without any doubt they were all Master stonemasons! taking us straight back to the quarries of the Montagnola. Here in Pratale they were living, and we can easily affirm here were staying also all their workers and labourers.
Moving from their name and following the feeble traces left by these Masters we have been able to learn they were all appointed by the Commune of Siena either to the Fabbrica del Duomo or to provide marble’s manufacts for other Cities such as Pistoia, Orvieto and even for the loathed Florence.
The quarrying activity went on for centuries through several ups and downs in the whole of the Montagnola.
The white marble though, after the re-discovery of the high quality white from Carrara was no longer so much sought after and most of the activity was restricted to a much poorer material: the tower stone, already used for buildings, small manufacts and the production of lime and mortar. But in the XVI C, with the new architectural style adopting marbles of various colours, the marble from the Montagnola had a revival.
In the area were present marbles of yellow colour: the Siena Yellow and the Siena Broccatello. The former is a soft, pale and warm coloration, the latter a much vivid yellow veined by dark blue, or even black, patterns that makes it resemble a brocade.
Unfortunately the specific conformation of the soil preclude the excavation of large blocks, problem met also with the white, and therefore the quantities quarried have never been very height. Nonetheless the presence of the Yellows from the Montagnola is recorded in ancient and important buildings throughout the world.
Today only one or two craftsman are still working the Yellow and the Broccatello locally extracted but the diminishing quantity and the fractured nature preclude its use in large slabs limiting the production to small object and to tiles.