Castello del Terriccio

Region: Tuscany

The origin of the Terriccio Estate goes back to the very far past. It extends over a territory where the Etruscans extracted iron and copper of which there are still traces to be seen today. During the period of the Maritime Republics, of the fratricidal feuds and the pirate attacks, the old castle, stronghold realized in the estate, became for the Republic of Pisa an important strategical outpost to control a stretch of the Tyrrhenian coast.

In the 14th century the Bishop of Pisa conceeded landrights of the Castle, its rural buildings and the land to the Count Gaetani of Pisa. They made veritable estate out of it, the so-called “County of Terriccio” which remained in the hands of the Gaetani family for over five centuries. Subsequently the Terriccio was gradually trasformed into an efficient agricultural establishment with warehouses and production sites which are partly still used today. At the end of the 18th century the estate was bought out by the Polish Prince Poniatowski and they were the owners until the first postwar period, when it was purchased by the Count Serafini Ferri. The Serafini Ferri family have further enhanced the agricultural side of the Terriccio to the point of making a business in the modern sense increasing the area of cultivation, planting olive groves and vineyards and a complete renovation of the rural buildings. Today the Terriccio, under the management of Gian Annibale Rossi di Medelana Serafini Ferri, is an important agricultural estate of 4,200 acres, part of which is put to use for organic cultivation of cereals, forage, olive trees and, in particular, grapes from which wines of great personality and reflective of their land are obtained.