Badia di Morrona Toscana N'Antia 2004

The history of Badia di Morrona begins in the very beautiful abbey at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Founded by Hugh of the Cadolingi, it was run first by Cluniac Benedictine monks and then by Camaldolese monks. From 1482 it became the summer residence of the Bishops of Volterra, and later, with the unification of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 and the confiscation of Church property, the abbey saw the passage of various estates and families until the Gaslini Alberti Counts purchased it in 1939.

Egidio, father of the current owners Filippo and Alessandra, worked to restore the Abbey to its former glory. In addition to replanting the vineyards and improving the applied agronomic techniques, work has begun on the renovation and expansion of the winery and barrique cellar historically present in a sort of annex of the abbey. This was in fact the first home of Badia di Morrona wines later replaced in the early 2000s by the new winery in Terricciola.

Thanks to the efforts of the entire Gaslini Alberti family and a very careful conservative restoration, today the abbey has been able to reopen to visitors its cloister, the monks' refectory, the gardens and the fascinating Romanesque church of Santa Maria a Morrona. The latter holds such noteworthy later works as the Madonna painted by the Master of San Torpè, who was strongly influenced by the likes of Cimabue and Giotto, 18th-century frescoes, and the striking 14th-century olive-wood crucifix.

Since 1939 each generation has played a crucial role in the growth and history of this reality: today Filippo and Alessandra are the third generation to lead Badia di Morrona, and with the contribution of Francesca, Lorenzo and Niccolò, the young new generation of the family, the future of Badia di Morrona is all to be written and discovered.