HISTORY OF THE BORGO

Restored farmhouse group around the ancient 13th century tower house

Today Borgo Mocale is a widespread hotel that hosts and welcomes those who are looking for an agritourism in Tuscany, immersed in the greenery of the typical landscape, with a swimming pool and other comforts.

But how was Borgo Mocale born?

Borgo Mocale develops around an ancient watchtower built around the 13th century which was part of the well-organized defense system created in these places by the feudal lords who dominated there, who after the 11th century were the Guidi and the Pazzi.

The ancient settlement stands on the Valdarno side of the Pratomagno massif, an area which in the past has always held a very great strategic importance for the control of the communication routes, not only between the North and the South, between Florence and Rome, but also for the control of the pass roads that united Valdarno and Casentino.

From the Etruscan age up to the Late Middle Ages, that is until the moment in which the Republic of Florence conquered the ancient local nobility and included its lands in the city’s countryside, the Valdarnese population in clear prevalence lived not in the marshy and insecure valley floor, but in high places, dotted with towers and castles and intensely cultivated.

With the consolidation of the Florentine dominion, the centers of power and population moved downstream, but these places maintained their economic importance and the possessions of the main city families extended into them.

As far as the Mocale area is concerned, we know that in the second half of the sixteenth century Bartolomeo Concini, the powerful secretary of Duke Cosimo I, owned a very considerable real estate wealth located mainly in the Valdarno as well as Florence.

The Concinis died out in 1632 and after that date in the Mocale area we find many religious entities as landowners: perhaps it is not wrong to assume that this is due to the hereditary bequests desired by the descendants of Messer Bartolomeo.

D'AMICO FAMILY

The D’Amico family has owned the Borgo di Mocale and the entire farm unit since 1972, which it takes care of, maintains and carries on, as has been the tradition since the opening of the agritourism business in 1985.

Giuseppe, Antonella and Giulio, the members of the D’Amico family, together with their collaborators are committed to keeping the atmosphere of Borgo Mocale alive, putting passion, love and awareness by pursuing an ideal in hospitality and organic agriculture.