HISTORICAL INFORMATION OF THE TOWN OF PONTE D’ARBIA

The year 1840, on the facade, means certainly the date of execution of the renovation works undertaken by the Cresti family.

At the beginning of the 1900s, the ground floor rooms were place of "workshops": shoemakers, carpenters, grocery stores and fabrics, an olive grove for flaxseed oil production, and even an outpatient pharmacy.

In 1930 Monsignor Lorenzo Cresti founded the kindergarten in which they served, until 1972, Carmelite Sisters and then Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent.

From 1972 to 1976 it became a state nursery school.

In 1978 it became a place for the reception of Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees.

Since 1983 it has been the seat of the cultural center "Mons. L. Cresti "and pilgrim's hostel on the Via Francigena. The property ownership is the Società di Esecutori di Pie Disposizioni onlus, based in Siena.
In 2016, the pilgrims testimonies welcomed in these years have been collected in the book "La chiave sotto lo zerbino" by Marco Padrini and Linda Monaci.

The chapel was probably built at the end of the eighteenth century, as evidenced by the Pope's Pius VI plenary, dated February 7, 1799.

The current architectural conformation dates back to an extension of the project, completed in 1850 by the architect Lorenzo Doveri and commissioned by of Luigi Cresti.

The name is born, as Merlotti (1881, c.615v) states, from the position of the ancient village, "because of its position in the hills that end between the two rivers, the Arbia and the Ombrone, it closes, or clamps, the valleys around, where these two rivers gather in the plain of Buonconvento."

Enclosed within the walls built by the Senate for its own security from 1371, the small village was plundered and partly destroyed in 1554-55.

The seventeenth century church in the ancient Serravalle castle was dedicated to the Saints Fabiano and Sebastiano.

In 1786, the title of St. Lorenzo was assigned to the church, transferred from the ancient Pieve to Sprenna.

Toponym that since about three centuries has cancelled and made disappeared the one of San Giovanni a Pomeggiano, dating back to the Middle Ages.

The first memory of this seems to date back to 1246.

The church of S. Lucia, that still exists (even in the state of ruin), at the end of the 1950s was still open to worship.

Saltemnano Castle was certainly the place of an important domination since 1055.

In July 1554 he was occupied for a few days by imperial troops.

Within the castle there is no trace of the existence of a church; however, there is a large building called "Chiesa" on the top of a hill.

In 1314 the villa belonged to Giovanni di Tese Tolomei, who was also rector of Spedale di Siena. The villa remained a grange of the Spedale of Siena until 1504.

Among the historians, Maroni believes that the origin of the Pieve dates back to the VII-VIII century (Maroni, 1973, p.218).
From the 13th century, in the Pieve were assembled several canons , as evidenced by a document of 1252.

"El pueblo de Serravalle Ponte d'Arbia en memoria de las santas Misiones celebradas por los reverendos Padres Cappuccini de Siena. 15-25 de febrero de 1962" (de la inscripción en el zócalo).