Agriturismo la Rimbecca

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During the Middle Ages, La Rimbecca was an important central fortification in the large system of forts with which the Salimbeni family ruled their lands in the Val d’Orcia, meanwhile plotting a political strategy to conquer the Signoria in Siena.

Salimbeni's flag

Today we can still see traces of the Medieval era, leftovers from its original defensive role, in the principal palace, shaped like a fort, in the bell tower of the church, later joined to the complex, and in the remains of the outer walls.
From numerous archeological remains of its Etruscan and Roman past, we see evidence that the area has been continually inhabited from ancient times. Perhaps such viability stems from its strategic location near the confluence of the Formone and the Orcia rivers, as well as its presence on the travel route from the Val d’Orcia toward the Val di Chiana and the Val de Paglia; or perhaps it is because of the area’s unique geological character, constituted of fertile alluvial terraces rather than the pliocene clays in the surrounding planes.
It is not easy to pinpoint the date of construction of the fortified palace, even though we know that La Rimbecca (a name seemingly derived from German, owing to the presence of sixth-century Lombard invaders) was owned in 1279 by the Viscount of Campiglia, then ceded by Napoleone di Tancredi (a Lombard king) to the Abbey Santo Salvatore on Monte Amiata. It is thought that the construction of the fort was undertaken by the Viscounts during the XIIIth century because the castle’s placement is typical of the time. The Salimbeni became masters of La Rimbecca between 1368 and 1419, the year in which Coco di Cione and his wife, Marietta, signed a document of capitalization, by which they renounced and ceded to the Siena Commune all their castles and lands. In 1420 La Rimbecca, degraded and semi-abandoned after the war of the Salimbeni, was assigned to Giovanni del Zolla, leader of a group of conspirators that had allowed the Republic of Siena in 1419 to storm the Rocca d’Orcia, an ancient bastion and center of strategic and military operations for the powerful Salimbeni constorium. After the death of Cocco, Marietta married again, to Antonio Petrucci, the great condottiere of the Sienese people’s republic, and for her dowery received from the Sienese commune three castles: La Rimbecca, Perignano, and Castelvecchio. But that period was short-lived. Having lost their defensive function, the forts of Perignano, Palazzo de Geta, La Rimbecca, Poggio val d’Orcia, Chiarentana, Castelvecchio, and la Briccola were annexed by the “people” in 1438, under the direct

The Rimbecca farm in a XVIIth century

administration of the Sienese Republic, and gradually transformed into family estates.
The commune of La Rimbecca matches the period about which Gherardini wrote in his “Visit” in 1676, concerning the family holdings of t he Signori Loli di Siena, which constituted the villa of La Rimbecca and three farms: Molinella, Casella, and Palazzuola. “All these estates are under the care of the church and the parish of Santo Eustachio in Castelvecchio and under the diocese of Pienza. They have in that commune a church that serves the Loli family each feast day at an expense of fifty florins each year.”
The chapel built at the side of La Rimbecca’s tower dates to that period and to the sweeping transformation of the castle that ended with the 18th century work that saw the addition of the longitudinal structure joining church and tower to the original fortification.