Villa i Lecci

The Villa of Larne and the adjacent buildings or adjacent arise at the height of a pleasant hill (h mt. 272 ​​asl) sloping westward to Siena by descending into the valley of the river-Bozzone Little is known of its oldest part corresponding to the main residential complex. However, the time of the first construction can be traced back to the thirteenth century. In fact, the church of S. Maria in Larne mention an instrument of the archives of the Cathedral of Siena 1224, including the confirmation made by the Bishop of Siena Buonfiglio various assets belonging to the Church of Larne. As often occurs in the country homes of the time its function is linked to agricultural population that occurs in the presence of a large barn, a mill of which still retain the great stone mill and large earthenware jars for collecting the oil produced. The complex was then in the time features of many warehouses for the storage of farm implements and other agricultural needs. Other buildings were added at later dates unspecified. Equally uncertain era of the first building of the oratory that home under the title of S. Maria in Larne was built in communication with the villa. The west part must have been intended to house in the '600 as can be seen from the dating of documents found in the sacristy of the chapel. Until 1925 the complex of the villa, chapel - chapel, rural outbuildings belonged to the noble and wealthy family of Siena Ottieri Ciaia when it was merged by marriage is also a descendant of the historic family Piccolomini. In the last quarter of the '800 major works were carried out beautification and renovation continued for several years, certainly until 1903, when they were painted decorations and frescoes in the loggia to the west. A scroll that is repeated as part of the decoration of the wall of the loggia indicates with certainty that date and the name Arniano, obvious alteration of Larne. In the sacristy of the chapel, rebuilt in those years and connected to the villa through a kind of gallery, is a plaque that shows the dedication to Mary, "comforting the afflicted" and lists the names of purchasers of steel and Ottieri Piccolomini and the name the artist and the date of execution of the work. Inside the house, whose floor has a distribution of the rooms around the main hall, it is interesting and well-preserved decoration in the late nineteenth century various geometric patterns on the beams that form the ceiling. The decorations of the doors, the walls of the vaulted ceiling of the ladder and paints trompe l'oeil "in the dining room instead of a few years ago. On the back of the building there is a clock which keeps intact the mechanism. A garden of about 1500 square meters equipped with benches made of stone covered with a different, small paths and a fountain in the form of a small cave, flanks the villa on the west side. The remaining area of ​​about 1 h lies at the back of the house and closes in a grove. Property is relevant to the avenue before the villa.