What is Lucignano known for?

Gothic goldsmith's reliquary in the Museo Civico, 260 cm tall, called the Tree of Love by tradition and considered a marriage charm. Four concentric rings of streets inside the medieval walls, one of the most complete elliptical hill-town plans surviving in Tuscany. Continuously fought over by Siena, Arezzo, Florence and Perugia between 1200 and 1500, walls and gates rebuilt by Siena in 1371.

Lucignano is a comune in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany region of Italy, about 70 kilometers from Perugia.

Tuscany · Arezzo

Lucignano

A walled elliptical hill townbetween Siena and Arezzo, planned in medieval concentric rings around the goldsmith's reliquary called the Tree of Life.

70 km / 43 mi

Nearest hub (Perugia)

3,383

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Lucignano sitson a hill in the Valdichiana, halfway between Siena and Arezzo, built on a tight elliptical plan of four concentric rings of streets. Its position made it one of the most contested settlements of medieval Toscana: Siena, Arezzo, Florence and Perugia all fought over it between 1200 and 1500. The current walls and three gates date to a Sienese reconstruction of 1371. In the Museo Civico inside the Palazzo Comunale stands the Albero d'Oro, a 260-centimeter Gothic gold-and-coral reliquary in the shape of a tree, begun by Ugolino di Vieri in 1350 and finished by Gabriello d'Antonio in 1471. Local tradition turned it into the Albero dell'Amore, a marriage charm. The Collegiata di San Michele Arcangelo dominates the highest ring of the borgo, and the elliptical plan is best read from the air, which is why drone footage of Lucignano keeps appearing in articles about medieval Tuscan urbanism.

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Gallery

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Known for

Albero d'Oro
260-cm Gothic reliquary in the shape of a tree, gold, coral and enamel, begun by Ugolino di Vieri in 1350 and completed by Gabriello d'Antonio in 1471.
Centro storico ellittico
Four concentric rings of streets inside elliptical walls, the most complete example of medieval Tuscan elliptical town planning.
Collegiata di San Michele Arcangelo
Eighteenth-century church on the highest ring of the borgo, with a Vasari façade adjustment and a baroque organ inside the medieval shell.
Palazzo Comunale
Thirteenth-century town hall, seat of the Museo Civico, holding the Albero d'Oro reliquary and a fresco cycle by the school of Bartolo di Fredi.
Fortezza Medicea
Sixteenth-century Medici bastion at the eastern edge of the walls, built after Cosimo I took the Valdichiana, used today as a public terrace.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the months Lucignano keeps its balance, the Valdichiana green or gold depending on the half and the centro storico cool inside its elliptical walls. The Maggiolata, a flower festival between the four quarters of the borgo, runs across the last two Sundays of May. July and August push the valley past thirty and the centro storico thins after lunch. November through March is quiet, the Museo Civico keeps shorter hours, and the dawn light through the elliptical gates is the kind of slow walk the village is built for.