Badia a Passignano

This historic fortified abbey in Passignano has a dramatic position in the Chianti hills. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times throughout history, and today it appears more like a castle than a monastery.
In 1866 when the Siccardi Law suspended the monastic orders, the property passed to the Italian state. The government sold the enormous property at auction to Count Maurizio Dzieduszycki, who immediately transformed the monastery into a private villa, using the popular style at the time, neogothic or new gothic.
In 1986 the abbey returned to the ownership of the Vallombrosani monks. The monastery itself is still enclosed in its high 15th century walls, which still display new gothic integrations. The church, in the form of a Latin cross, was almost entirely rebuilt in the second half of the 16th century and features frescoes by Passignano and Alessandro Allori.
The year after, Antinori bought the surrounding vineyards and the rights to use the abbey’s cellars, producing a Badia a Passignano Chianti Classico Riserva.

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