The estate consists of a Farmhouse and a Leopodina (a name given to
farmhouses built around the age of Grandduke Leopold in the 1700s) built in the
18th century as well as a large park featuring a stunning
swimming-pool with whirlpool bath that will invite you to spend pleasant and
relaxing hours in one of Tuscany’s most enchanting settings.
They designed this unique place for you, to enjoy an intense and unrepeatable
experience, making you feel part of an environment where things have remained
unchanged and the past seems to be brought back to life everyday in its charm
and character.
You will be able to dine in a kitchen that used to accommodate over
thirty people at a time, sleep in the bedroom converted form the old cattle shed
where farmers used to spend sleepless nights watching over their cows delivering
their calves, sleep in the “tracantone” bed, sleep in the bedroom located in the
Loggia or in the bedroom converted from the old dove-tower, a shelter where
doves where bred by farmers.
Fireplaces will tell you and remind you of stories that were told
gathering around them in the cold winter nights.
Walls are decorated with paintings and pictures but the best images you will be
able to behold will come, as if by magic, from the windows opening onto stunning
natural settings such as the dark mountains hanging over Cortona, the sweet and
seamless country-side and the noble profile of Cortona….
HistoryThe estate consists of a Farmhouse and a Leopodina (a name
given to farmhouses built around the age of Grand Duke Leopold in the 1700s)
built in the 18th century during the extensive reclamation of the Valdichiana by
the Grand Dukes of Tuscan and members of the Order of the Knights of St. Stephen
and Malta.
The Leopoldina whose construction was completed in 1796 still displays on its
façade a coat of arms attesting to the origin of the estate. As the estate was
built to accommodate many people (the holding was very large) Leopoldina houses
were built over two floors the ground floor usually featuring a hallway or
portico with the typical covered loggia or a portico on the ground floor and a
loggia on the upper floor. All Leopoldine were dominated by a quadrangular Torre
Colombaia (literally a dove tower as dovecote really would be underestimating
its size, where doves were bred).We called our estate Le Terre dei Cavalieri as
the apartments making up the same were named after the land that was known for
many years by this name by farmers living in the area. Il Confine (the border)
refers to the estate, La Reglia is the stream running by it, La Colmata means
reclaimed land (slightly up the hill) whilst Il Chiarone is the name of a plot
of land so called for the sunshine reflecting off of it.
The term Cavalieri (Knights) reminds us of the religious Order of St. Stephen
belonging to the Knights of Malta. The Order used to protect the ancient Grand
ducal Farm of Creti and Santa Caterina which our estate belonged to. Renovation
work carried out on the estate lasted three years during which old “cocciopesto”
(lime mortar and crushed bricks) plasters were restored, walls were painted with
natural lime-based paints, old fire-places were kept unaltered, cross vaults in
the old cattle shed were cleared out and reinforced and pillars bounding the
spans were stuccoed.