Palazzo dei Capitani

The Palazzo dei Capitani is the centrepiece of the village square and the seat of Florentine power in the Mugello mountains during the late medieval and Renaissance periods. The stone facade with its arches, coat of arms and clock tower is restrained but striking — exactly what a small administrative outpost of the Florentine republic was meant to look like.

Today the building houses two small museums: one on traditional life in the high Mugello (farming tools, costume, beekeeping), the other on the archaeology of the upper Senio valley. Modest collections, but well presented, and admission is cheap.

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A story
The captains who gave the building its name were Florentine governors sent up to the mountain village to keep order along the Romagnan border. The position was reputedly unpopular: too cold in winter, too far from the city, and too rich in arguments with the locals.

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