Castello di Brolio historical timeline

The name is older than the castle. Brolio derives from the Celtic Brogilo and, before the year 1000, Broilo designated "a wooded estate with an enclosure reduced to domestic use, and in the middle of it the castle for its lord's dwelling". The surrounding names — Gaiole, Monte Luco, Avane, Avenano — prove the ancient wooded state of the Chianti, hunting reserve of the Conti della Berardenga.

The first documented lord is a marquis. Tenth-century documents show the lord of Brolio and its district to have been Bonifazio, son of a count Alberto, who in 1009 donated to the Badia di Firenze, among his other courts, that of Brolio together with the patronage of the parish church of San Regolo — a donation confirmed by the emperor Henry II in 1012 and by Henry IV in 1074.

Then the Ricasoli, and they never left. The territory and castle became, and remain, the patrimony of the Florentine noble family Ricasoli. Their first public act drawn up in their court of Brolio is dated February 1141, by which Rodolfino di Rolando with his son Renuccino ceded lands to the Badia di Coltibuono.

Being Florentine meant being fortified and attacked. Brolio was the last outpost of the Florentine Republic on the Florentine–Sienese border and therefore a sensitive position. In 1252 it was assaulted and taken by the Sienese, returned to the Ricasoli only the following year at the armistice. In 1434 Antonio Petrucci of Siena got in by deception and took the Ricasoli prisoner, until the Signoria of Florence sent Neri Capponi, who forced Petrucci to surrender. In 1452 the Aragonese, allied to Siena, besieged Brolio and Cacchiano and failed to take either.

The attack of 27 August 1478 was different, because it had artillery. The Sienese assault was pressed furiously with bombards; Florence sent l'Anghiarino, an able strategist and condottiere, to lead the defence, but under Sienese mortar fire part of the walls came down. Bongianni Gianfigliazzi raised an army in the Valdarno and marched for the Chianti, "but before he could do so, Brolio on the 14th [of September] surrendered to the enemy; who, as they had done at Radda, without observing any promise to those inside, once in gave the place to sack, burned many houses and threw down the walls".

After the Florentine conquest of Siena it stopped being a fortress. Brolio was converted into a prestigious seigneurial residence and an imposing agricultural and above all wine estate. (The record attributes the conversion to a design by Giuliano da Sangallo; he died in 1516 and the conquest of Siena was completed in 1555, so the architect is not carried here.)

The nineteenth century made it famous twice. In 1829 Bettino Ricasoli, barely twenty, took the property in hand; in 1835 he commissioned Marchetti's Gothic Revival remodelling; and in 1874 he defined the blend. Since 1993 Francesco Ricasoli, 32nd Baron of Brolio, has directed the company, after three decades of foreign ownership.

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