The Azienda Agraria Abbadia extends for about 1,445 acres in the plains of Sienese Val di Chiana belonging to the Municipality of Montepulciano and it can be identified with the 18th-century "Fattoria Abbadia", one of the ten farms which had a main role in the projects of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany (first the Medici, then the Lorena) regarding the complete reclamation and division into farms of this Valley. These Farms were made up by beautiful estates, alleys with mulberry-trees, farmhouses having a peculiar architecture (the so-called "Leopold's houses") where large families of 20 to 40 people lived together. "Fattoria Abbadia" could comprise even thirty farmhouses.
In the first half of the 19th century, following the disruptions caused by the arrival of the Napoleonic armies, the Farms passed under the direct administration of the Lorena's Record of Crown proprieties and successively to the Kingdom of Italy, whose Government between 1863 and 1864 decided to sell the Farms of State properties to private owners.
The Fattoria Abbadia was bought by Senator Count Pietro Bastogli and successively by the Ciuffi family, who from the beginning of 1900 to nowadays have managed directly the various activities of the farm.
Today all the lands are cultivated: about 173 acres under grass, 37 acres of woods and the remaining 1,235 acres made up by sown fields (wheat, corn, tobacco, maize, beetroots, tomatoes and sunflowers). One of the main activities is the breeding of Chianina cattle. The large real estate comprises also some buildings to be restored.
The Azienda Agraria Abbadia extends for about 1,445 acres in the plains of Sienese Val di Chiana belonging to the Municipality of Montepulciano and it can be identified with the 18th-century "Fattoria Abbadia", one of the ten farms which had a main role in the projects of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany (first the Medici, then the Lorena) regarding the complete reclamation and division into farms of this Valley.
These Farms were made up by beautiful estates, alleys with mulberry-trees, farmhouses having a peculiar architecture (the so-called "Leopold's houses") where large families of 20 to 40 people lived together. "Fattoria Abbadia" could comprise even thirty farmhouses.
In the first half of the 19th century, following the disruptions caused by the arrival of the Napoleonic armies, the Farms passed under the direct administration of the Lorena's Record of Crown proprieties and successively to the Kingdom of Italy, whose Government between 1863 and 1864 decided to sell the Farms of State properties to private owners.
The Fattoria Abbadia was bought by Senator Count Pietro Bastogli and successively by the Ciuffi family, who from the beginning of 1900 to nowadays have managed directly the various activities of the farm.
Today all the lands are cultivated: about 173 acres under grass, 37 acres of woods and the remaining 1,235 acres made up by sown fields (wheat, corn, tobacco, maize, beetroots, tomatoes and sunflowers). One of the main activities is the breeding of Chianina cattle. The large real estate comprises also some buildings to be restored.