he Castle of Poppi is the main monument of Casentino. On the contrary of all the other castles and medieval architectures of the area it has not been ruined by time and men being always used as residence of the local political or administrative power.
Since its origins, the history of the castle has been closely linked to that of the largest feudal family of the Casentino, who placed Poppi at the centre of their large properties and inhabited this manor for almost four hundred years: the Counts Guidi.
Despite the fact that the first written information about the existence of the castle dates back to 1191, its architecture and the fact that the Guidi family already owned vast estates in Tuscany and Romagna leads us to suppose that its foundation dates back to two or three centuries earlier, to the period between the Lombard and Frankish invasions in these territories.
The original nucleus of the castle consists of the square tower that still dominates the rest of the building and almost the entire valley.
Today’s appearance is not the primitive one, in fact in the nineteenth century it was transformed, during the restoration work following the damage caused by a lightning strike, into a bell tower. The tower had to be much higher and equipped with a protruding apparatus with corbels, if it is true that it was taken as an example by Arnolfo di Cambio for the construction of that of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, fortunately still intact.
