Art and Nature

Seggiano - Spoerri Garden - Oil Museum - Potentino Castle on foot

trekking with environmental guide

5,5 km long

200 m of altitude difference

medium difficulty

The trekking routes have a variable price based on the number of people and any additional services requested.
This itinerary is one way, you can book a circular tour with us, or a return trip with our minivan.

VALENTINA

Art historian and environmental guide. Her studies, focused above all on the medieval period, found inspiration precisely in the Val d’Orcia area, a place where the hills worked by man, the rows of cypresses, the medieval bell towers closely recall the splendid visions of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and Duccio di Boninsegna, the three “greats” of Tuscan pictorial art.

Let’s set off to discover a wonderful and mystical place: the artistic garden of Daniel Spoerri. The park, inaugurated in 1997, was born from the brilliant creativity of Daniel Spoerri, a Romanian naturalized Swiss artist and is in all respects one of the most important and evocative artist’s gardens in Italy. Spoerri’s love for the Seggiano countryside led him to acquire the estate which today is also the headquarters of the Garden Foundation. It is about 16 hectares of land which hosts 113 works by 55 different artists, all strongly linked to each other by their deep friendship and esteem towards Spoerri. The visit to the park is a sort of secular pilgrimage that can be carried out alone or in a group, but certainly the silence and stillness that can be felt inside this garden is more unique than rare and leaves you amazed every time you cross the entrance gate. The view of the village of Seggiano and the view that extends beyond the hills almost to the sea frame everything. Inside the garden we will also be able to admire a great variety of vegetation and plants, part of which is labeled as a real botanical route. We will continue towards the nearby village of Seggiano and in particular we will visit the Oil Museum. The museum, founded in 2012 at the behest of the Municipality of Seggiano and which became part of the Maremma Museums network, is a widespread museum which, starting from the large cistern located on the city walls, winds through an old 19th century oil mill, the oratory of San Rocco with its frescoes from 1490, the spaces of the former town hall and the new oil library in the main square, where tastings and purchases of short supply chain products are possible. Finally we will continue to the Potentino Castle about 3 km from Seggiano. The castle was built around the year one thousand as an ancient possession of the bishops of Chiusi, whose diocese extended, at the time, to the entire area of Monte Amiata. The castle still presents its original medieval appearance today, occupying two very distinct areas; the first, more external, includes the various annexed rural buildings and introduces the second, more internal area, which is accessed through an arched door, which opens along a curtain wall equipped with battlements at the top. Near the castle settlement, there is the noble chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. A little curiosity: the asteroid 18729 recently received the name Potentino from the International Astronomical Union.

You might be interested