Certaldo is divided into two parts, a walled city high on the hill called "Rione Castello" a lower, modern and industrialised part. It is located on the hills that divide the Val d'Elsa from the Val di Pesa, and is well worth a visit.
Certaldo was the home of the family of
Giovanni Boccaccio, who died and was
buried here in 1375.
Boccaccio was a man of the Renaissance in almost every sense. His humanism comprised not only classical studies and the attempt to rediscover and reinterpret ancient texts but also the attempt to raise literature in the modern languages to the level of the classical by setting standards for it and then conforming to those standards. Boccaccio advanced further than Petrarch in this direction not only because he sought to dignify prose as well as poetry but also because, in his
Ninfale fiesolano, in his Elegia de Madonna Fiammetta, and in the
Decameron, he ennobled everyday experience, tragic and comic alike. Although his
Teseida and Ninfale d'Ameto invite comparison with classical genres, his
Filocolo and Filostrato raised to the level of learned art the literature of chivalry and love that had fallen to the level of the populace. The attention to popular and
mediaeval themes that characterised Italian culture in the second half of the 15
C is heavily dependent on the contribution of Boccaccio.
● Palazzo Pretorio - the keep remains from the original 12 C structure, and the rest dates from the 1400s. The facade is decorated with heraldic shields.
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Palazzo Pretorio
● Certaldo
Museum of Sacred Art
● Palazzo Stiozzi Ridolfi - 13 C with an elegant courtyard and portico.
● Palazzo Giannozzi - elements from the 14 C and the Renaissance
● Casa del Boccaccio - preserves a few traces of the original mediaeval structure. It was reconstructed in
original style after having been more or less totally destroyed by Allied
bombing during the Second World War.
● Ss. Jacopo and Filippo - a convent complex with a small brick church from the 1200s.
