Montecatini Alto

Montecatini alto - The funicular of 1895 connects the city of the valley with its village of origin, located at 299 m. Here we retrace the history woven since the Middle Ages by the properties of thermal waters. The village was disputed land by the cities of Florence, Lucca and Pisa, until it permanently became the domain of the Medici of Val di Nievole.

Cosimo I Medici destroyed the walls in 1554 and of the many towers, only two remain. The church of San Pietro, dating back to the 12th century, was the Castle Chapel originally in Romanesque style, still recognizable in some columns and capitals. It preserves in the Choir an Ascension of Christ by Santi di Tito and in the nave an Assumption of the Virgin of Maratto. Due to the marshy area of the valley, the inhabitants suffered malarial diseases until, under the government of the Habsburg-Lorraine, a reclamation was made with canals and pipes and the thermal water was conveyed into collection tanks. In the village you can also visit the Maona cave, a large karst cavity covered with stalactites and stalagmites, formed by resurgences and limestone sediments.