Discover Panzano in Chianti

A concise introduction to Panzano in Chianti, its geography, history and culture.

Introduction

Panzano in Chianti is a frazione of the comune of Greve in Chianti, in the province of Florence — not a comune of its own — with 1,161 inhabitants, standing at about 510 metres on the ridge between the Greve and the Pesa. Visit Tuscany places it "exactly halfway between Florence and Siena". Its patron is Santa Maria Assunta, kept on 15 August.

The Etruscans were here, and the proof has been lost. The area was inhabited in Etruscan times, shown by a stele of the sixth to fifth century BC found near the pieve di San Leolino — a stele since dispersed. The Roman period left its mark in the place names, among them Panzano itself.

The castle is the highest and the oldest part of the village. Much of the wall that ringed the hill survives; the accuracy of its masonry and the form of its archivolts date the structures to the twelfth century, and Visit Tuscany notes the castle has been documented since the eleventh. It and the borgo below it together make what is called Panzano Alto.

The square everyone sits in is not up there. Piazza Gastone Bucciarelli is at Campana, at the foot of the Panzano hill where the ridge road crosses the Chiantigiana — and the square is why the place is called Campana, because seen from above it has the shape of a bell.

Geography

A ridge village at about 510 metres between the Greve and the Pesa, with the Conca d'Oro falling away to the west and the Passo di Campana at 480 metres below it.

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History

An Etruscan stele by the pieve, a castle of the Firidolfi sacked after Montaperti in 1260, and the seat of Florence's Commissioner in the war of 1478.

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Culture

A painter known only as the Maestro di Panzano, a Cappadocian saint — Sant’Eufrosino — with a healing spring, and a September wine festival in a square shaped like a bell.

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How it was built and evolved over time

Alberese laid in careful courses, archivolts that date the castle to the twelfth century, and a defensive tower that became a bell tower.

Read the full how it was built and evolved over time guide →

Climate patterns

No weather station serves Panzano, so this page quotes no temperature figures. What can be said is altitude, aspect and exposure.

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Frequently asked questions

Is Panzano in Chianti a town in its own right?

Not administratively. It is a frazione of the comune of Greve in Chianti, in the province of Florence, with about 1,161 inhabitants. It has its own page here because it has its own identity, history and churches — but it has no town hall, and everything municipal is at Greve.

How old is the castle?

Its structures are dated to the twelfth century by the accuracy of the masonry and the form of the archivolts, and Visit Tuscany says the castle has been documented since the eleventh. It had certainly developed before the twelfth century and belonged to the Firidolfi.

Can I go into the castle?

You can walk up the street through the gate — the castle is the highest part of the village and is lived in. No opening hours or admission are published for it by anyone, which means nothing is ticketed, not that every door is open.

Where is Piazza Gastone Bucciarelli?

At Campana, at the foot of the Panzano hill where the ridge road meets the Chiantigiana, not up in the old village. The square is why the place is called Campana: seen from above it has the shape of a bell. In the late-sixteenth-century Carta dei Capitani di Parte Guelfa it appears as Piazza Panzanini, and a fine Cinquecento palace still faces it.

What is the Conca d'Oro?

The sunlit western side of Panzano, falling into the valley of the Pesa. The name is literal — the hillside forms a basin, and wheat grown between the vine rows made it shine straw-gold in summer until the 1970s, when vines replaced it.

Why is the Pieve di San Leolino on this page and not Greve's?

Because it is at Panzano. The encyclopaedia files it under Greve because Greve is the comune; the church stands in this village, and Greve's page on this site says so and points here.

When is the wine festival?

Vino al Vino is on the third weekend in September, in Piazza Bucciarelli. There is also a spring edition, Vino al Vino in Cantina, held in the cellars.

Was Panzano part of the Lega del Chianti?

No. When the Florentine contado was organised into leagues in the mid-thirteenth century, Panzano fell in the Lega della Val di Greve. The Lega del Chianti's three terzieri were Radda, Gaiole and Castellina.

Verified against Wikipedia, October 2026.

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Checked against Wikipedia — Panzano in Chianti is a frazione of the comune of Greve in Chianti, in the province of Florence, with 1,161 inhabitants, standing at 510 metres; its patron is Santa Maria Assunta, kept on 15 August., The castle is the highest and oldest part of Panzano; a good part of the walls that girded the hill is still conserved, though on two sides they have been reduced in height while on the south-east side they are missing altogether. Corner towers also survive, one of which has been reused as the bell tower of the church of Santa Maria while another still keeps its apparato a sporgere. The internal structure is simple: from the single access gate, which may originally have had an antiporta, a single street leads to a small piazzetta onto which the cassero faces, the cassero being a tall tower rising higher than all the other buildings; beside the access gate is a building of obviously medieval character. For the accuracy of the wall facing and the form of the archivolts, all the buildings of the castle date its structures to the twelfth century., The zone called Campana rises at the foot of the hill of Panzano at the crossing between the strada dei poggi, which winds along the watershed between the Greve and the Pesa, joining by a very panoramic route San Casciano in Val di Pesa at one end and Volpaia at the other by way of the Castello delle Stinche, and the via Chiantigiana which leads towards Radda in Chianti and Castellina in Chianti; the Passo di Campana is at 480 m above sea level. Its name derives from the shape of piazza Gastone Bucciarelli which, seen from above, resembles a bell. Campana was recalled in the Carta dei Capitani di Parte Guelfa made at the end of the sixteenth century, where it is called Piazza Panzanini, and a fine sixteenth-century palace faces onto the square, which still exists., Conca d'Oro is the part of Panzano turned to the sun which faces and slopes down into the broad valley of the Pesa, a landscape as far as the eye can see of woods, vineyards and olive groves of central Tuscany; the name refers to the shape of the flanks of the hill at that point, a basin. The appellation derives from the fact that in that valley a great quantity of wheat was cultivated in the middle of the rows of vines, so much so that in the summer months the valley shone a fine straw-yellow, like a great basin full of gold; from the 1970s onwards the cultivation of wheat was replaced by the far more profitable vine., The pieve di San Leolino is a Catholic place of worship at Panzano in Chianti, a frazione of Greve in Chianti in the province of Florence, diocese of Fiesole; it is recorded from 982 under the name of San Leolino a Flacciano in a parchment of the abbey of Passignano, though two sculptural fragments conserved inside suggest the church has an origin older still. The present building goes back to the twelfth century, as can be deduced from its structural and stylistic characteristics. In the medieval period the church had great importance and fourteen suffragan churches depended on it, among them the one inside the castle of Panzano. In 1508 the patronage of the church passed to the Florentine hospital of Santa Maria Nuova., In the mid-thirteenth century, when the Florentine contado was organised into leagues, Panzano was included in the Lega della Val di Greve., Panzano in Chianti is a frazione of the comune of Greve in Chianti, in the province of Florence, with 1,161 inhabitants, standing at 510 metres; its patron is Santa Maria Assunta, kept on 15 August., The area of Panzano was already inhabited in Etruscan times, as shown by the discovery near the pieve di San Leolino of a stele dating to the sixth to fifth century BC, a stele afterwards dispersed; in the Roman period too the area was densely inhabited, and numerous traces of that period remain in the place names, among them Panzano itself., The castle is the highest and oldest part of Panzano; a good part of the walls that girded the hill is still conserved, though on two sides they have been reduced in height while on the south-east side they are missing altogether. Corner towers also survive, one of which has been reused as the bell tower of the church of Santa Maria while another still keeps its apparato a sporgere. The internal structure is simple: from the single access gate, which may originally have had an antiporta, a single street leads to a small piazzetta onto which the cassero faces, the cassero being a tall tower rising higher than all the other buildings; beside the access gate is a building of obviously medieval character. For the accuracy of the wall facing and the form of the archivolts, all the buildings of the castle date its structures to the twelfth century., Outside the castle, along the access road that follows the ridge of the hill, the presence of a borgo is attested already in the twelfth century, in a document of 1146 as burgus de castro de Panzano; the borgo and the castle together form what is now called Panzano Alto. The borgo is articulated on two streets which, starting from a piazzetta, climb parallel to the castle, and among its buildings some show characteristics referable to the seventeenth or eighteenth century even though medieval structures appear from under some of the falling plaster., The zone called Campana rises at the foot of the hill of Panzano at the crossing between the strada dei poggi, which winds along the watershed between the Greve and the Pesa, joining by a very panoramic route San Casciano in Val di Pesa at one end and Volpaia at the other by way of the Castello delle Stinche, and the via Chiantigiana which leads towards Radda in Chianti and Castellina in Chianti; the Passo di Campana is at 480 m above sea level. Its name derives from the shape of piazza Gastone Bucciarelli which, seen from above, resembles a bell. Campana was recalled in the Carta dei Capitani di Parte Guelfa made at the end of the sixteenth century, where it is called Piazza Panzanini, and a fine sixteenth-century palace faces onto the square, which still exists. (October 2026).
Checked against Visit Tuscany (Toscana Promozione Turistica) — Visit Tuscany places Panzano in Chianti a few miles from Greve in Chianti, "exactly halfway between Florence and Siena", with the Conca d'Oro the valley that opens up at the foot of the village as "a mosaic of rows of vines, olive groves and woods"; it records the Panzano Castle as documented since the 11th century, still retaining large sections of the medieval walls after the damage of the Battle of Montaperti in 1260, and the Church of Santa Maria in Panzano as rebuilt in the 19th century on an earlier medieval church, holding a fourteenth-century Madonna and Child and an Annunciation attributed to Michele Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio. It names the Parish Church of San Leolino as one of the oldest churches in Chianti, and Dario Cecchini as "the celebrated butcher-bard known worldwide as the poet of steak"., Panzano in Chianti holds the wine festival Vino al Vino on the third weekend in September at Piazza Bucciarelli, and a spring edition, Vino al Vino in Cantina, held in the cellars., Visit Tuscany places Panzano in Chianti a few miles from Greve in Chianti, "exactly halfway between Florence and Siena", with the Conca d'Oro the valley that opens up at the foot of the village as "a mosaic of rows of vines, olive groves and woods"; it records the Panzano Castle as documented since the 11th century, still retaining large sections of the medieval walls after the damage of the Battle of Montaperti in 1260, and the Church of Santa Maria in Panzano as rebuilt in the 19th century on an earlier medieval church, holding a fourteenth-century Madonna and Child and an Annunciation attributed to Michele Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio. It names the Parish Church of San Leolino as one of the oldest churches in Chianti, and Dario Cecchini as "the celebrated butcher-bard known worldwide as the poet of steak". (October 2026).
Checked against Comune di Greve in Chianti — The Comune di Greve in Chianti publishes no opening hours and no admission price for any building at Panzano in Chianti, no transport timetable serving it, no festival programme and no pharmacy rota. (October 2026).