What is Anghiari known for?

Florentine victory over Milan on 29 June 1440 in the plain below town, commissioned as Leonardo's Palazzo Vecchio fresco in 1505 and never finished. Spring craft fair filling the centro storico with Valtiberina artisans every year since 1976, the working continuation of the town's textile and woodwork traditions. State museum holding Jacopo della Quercia's wooden Madonna, Della Robbian terracottas and a sixteenth-century table organ that still plays.

Anghiari is a comune in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany region of Italy, about 82 kilometers from Perugia.

Tuscany · Arezzo

Anghiari

A walled medieval townover the upper Tiber valley, where Florence beat Milan in 1440 and Leonardo started the fresco he never finished.

82 km / 51 mi

Nearest hub (Perugia)

5,384

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Anghiari sitson a spur above the upper Tiber valley, the Valtiberina, between Arezzo and the Umbrian border. The walled centro storico is intact, the streets running steeply from the Porta Sant'Angelo up to the Castello. On 29 June 1440 the Florentine army defeated a Milanese force under Niccolò Piccinino in the plain below town, a battle that secured Florence's hold over central Italy and gave Leonardo da Vinci the commission for the Palazzo Vecchio fresco he started in 1505 and never finished. The painting, the Lost Leonardo, is presumed still to be hidden behind a Vasari wall in Florence. Palazzo Taglieschi in the centro storico holds a polychrome wooden Madonna by Jacopo della Quercia and a working sixteenth-century table organ. The Mostra Mercato dell'Artigianato della Valtiberina has filled the streets with craft producers every spring since 1976, a working continuation of the textile and woodwork traditions that supported the town through the twentieth century.

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Gallery

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Known for

Palazzo Taglieschi
Sixteenth-century palace in the centro storico, now the Museo Statale di Palazzo Taglieschi, with a wooden Madonna by Jacopo della Quercia and a working table organ.
Castello di Anghiari
Medieval fortified core at the top of the town, walls and gates still intact, the visual anchor of the silhouette from the valley below.
Campo della Battaglia
The plain at the foot of the walls where Florence defeated Milan on 29 June 1440, the battle that inspired Leonardo's lost Palazzo Vecchio fresco.
Museo della Battaglia
Civic museum in Palazzo del Marzocco dedicated to the 1440 battle and the Leonardo cartoon, with weapons, banners and contemporary documents.
Badia di San Bartolomeo
Eleventh-century Camaldolese abbey at the lower edge of the centro storico, with frescoes and a thirteenth-century crucifix attributed to the school of Cimabue.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the working months in the Valtiberina: dry days, low cloud over the upper Tiber, the surrounding farmland green or gold by season. The Mostra Mercato dell'Artigianato runs the last week of April and the first week of May, filling the streets with artisans from across the valley. Late June marks the anniversary of the 1440 battle, with reenactments below the walls. July and August are hot and quieter than the coast; the centro storico empties between four and seven. November through March is quiet. The fog rises off the river at dawn and the town silhouette on the spur reads sharper than in summer haze.