TALLA

Talla, a relatively modern village in the context of Casentino

OSPITALITY IN TALLA

RESTAURANT IN TALLA

Folk festivals in Talla and in the mountain village of Faltona

The conference and concerts in Talla dedicated to Guido Monaco

Talla celebrates its champion, Emanuele Giaccherini

Contact the author of the site

The Talla village is detached from what can be considered the main directive of the Casentino valley, namely the course of the Arno and the Regional Road that runs alongside the river. To reach Talla, in Rassina you have to leave the SR 71 to take the provincial road that connects the Casentino to Valdarno through the Crocina Pass. In eight kilometres we reach the small village.
The territory of the Municipality of Talla is very wide. The area is hilly and mountainous because it is located on the southern slopes of Pratomagno. Its altitude varies from 340 to 1450 meters. For centuries this territory has drawn many of its economic resources from the woods: wood for work, firewood, chestnuts. Today these activities are very limited, while there is still the craft sector. Industry is almost absent.
From these considerations it is easy to understand that the Municipality of Talla makes the naturalistic aspect and an uncontaminated environment its strong points. To these important values can be added historical, cultural and architectural aspects of not negligible interest. Aspects much more present in the small mountain villages of the municipality, almost all of medieval origin, than in the capital, a relatively recent center. As far as mountain areas are concerned, Badia Santa Trinita in Alpe, founded in about 960 at the behest of Emperor Ottone I of Saxony, should be remembered. It was the first abbey founded in a territory including Casentino and Valdarno. Its evocative ruins set among lush woods can be visited with two walks of about five kilometers (one way) starting from Pontenano and Capraia.
The Talla village is located at the lowest point of the municipality, at the confluence of two streams. Besides these two watercourses, in Talla, four streets meet. These factors were certainly fundamental for the birth of this village, which started its development around the mid-16th century. On your way to Talla, following any of these streets, you will notice at first a little church situated in the upper part of the village on the top of a cliff, called Castellacia. This is a site antece- dent to the town, whose name suggests that a castle or something used to be here. There is no document able to help date the origin of this place, the little church is probably a 15th century rebuilding of previous one. Certain types of stones used in the present constructions suggest that the origin of the site could be around the year 1000. This is a fascinating hypothesis, also if you take into consideration a great plaque placed in the façade of the church in 1903, which says: “A very ancient tradition always said that in this old Talla, in 996, the immortal Guido Mona- co, inventor of the musical notes, was born.” In what is today considered the birthplace of this great academic, who put on a tetragram that marvelous language common to all the world, was built a very interesting Music Museum. From the Castellaccia, the view of the entire village of Talla – which from its foundation to the Second World War, with the last Podestà, had the Ducci family as Lords – is beautiful. Their crest with crossed chains is evident over the front door of the big church of the village, built by Ducci in 1644. This sacred building is very weel-kept, with one aisle and trusses. Three interesting artworks are conserved here. A Florentine school wooden crucifix dated mid-17th century and a beautiful canvas attributed to Tommaso Gorini from the same period – a Rosary Virgin among the Saints, in the fore- front San Niccolò, the patron of the village. The third artwork, considered the most arti- stically valuable, is “the transit of San Giu- seppe”, a mid-18th century canvas attributed to Giuseppe Antonio Fabbrini, a successful Florentine painter, author of some frescos on the vaults of the ceiling of the abbey of Vallombrosa. Also the columns of the inlaid and decorated wooden pipe organ are from the same period. Talla is worth a visit also for the architecture of the oldest part of the village. Another very interesting part is the hamlet that connects the two squares Piazza Licio Nincetti and Piazza Guido Monaco. Here you can find the tiny and characteristic Piazzetta del Sale, Piazza Landi with Palazzo del Fattore, the adjacent and “secret” Piazzet- ta dei Palchi and the hamlet (Via Verdi) that leads up to the Town Hall, once the residence of the Ducci family. Outside the old town, in Piazza IV Novembre, there is a war memorial by Domenico Purificato.
As mentioned above, the hamlets of the municipality of Talla are older than the capital, and also more interesting from a historical point of view. The villages of Faltona, Capraia, Pontenano and Pieve di Pontenano are described in detail in its web sections. Santo Bagnena and Bicciano will be shown and illustrated in the sequence pages of this section.