The Castle of Poppiano was a mighty medieval building with a triple ring of walls built around the year 1000 as a fortress to defend the outside part of Florence, and, as was pointed out by an act of inheritance of 1199, has been belonging to the Guicciardini family for at least nine centuries.
In this long period it has been the center of various events related to the history of Florence: so, for example, in 1369 Giovanni Acuto (John Hawkwood, the famous English Warlord), after the battle of Fosso Armonico, near Cascina, camped in the Castle of Poppiano. The castle was partially destroyed in 1529 during the siege of Florence, as Francesco Guicciardini recalled in his Memoirs. The Castle, as it is today, while maintaining its ancient grandeur, is the result of a restoration based on existing images in frescoes in other villas of the Guicciardini family in Val di Pesa and in Val d’Elsa, following the damage caused by an earthquake in 1812.
The Guicciardini family, since the thirteenth century had a prominent position in the political, social and economic life of Florence and in 1416 Piero G. was appointed "Conte Palatino" by Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. They actively participated in the public life of Florence where they provided 44 "priors", 16 "gonfaloniers of justice" and 12 senators.
The pre–eminent personality of the family was Francesco, the Historian (1483-1540) who, after covering important positions with the Medici family – ambassador in Spain, Governor of Modena and Reggio, head of the League of Cognac – retired in Florence and in Poppiano, where he wrote his most important work, the "Historia d’Italia".
