The shortlist / Italy / Badia di Montescalari
Photo: Romolini Immobiliare. Click the large photograph to see it full size.
at least 986 years old
Badia di Montescalari
Monte Scalari, between Greve in Chianti and Figline Valdarno, Florence, Tuscany, Italy
The Vallombrosan abbey of San Cassiano, founded before 1040 as a pilgrim hospice, with a church consecrated in 1212, two cloisters, a vaulted cellar and 100 hectares of woodland 30 km from Florence. It needs complete renovation. This is the entry for a reader with real money.
Our verdict
Two million euros for an abbey of 1040 with two cloisters and a hundred hectares, an hour from Florence.
The purchase is the cheap part. Whoever takes this on needs ten million more and ten years. I would do it as a house with a church, keep the monks’ plan, and rebuild the bell tower the Germans blew up.
What is wrong with it
- The works will cost several times the purchase price. Our rough total starts at seven million euros.
- The bell tower is gone.
- No heating, and the only water mentioned is a well.
- Ivy covers whole elevations, and one of the two farmhouses is a roofless ruin.
- The two floor areas in the advert differ by 1,200 square metres.
- A hundred hectares of woodland is a forestry business you did not ask for.
- The advert names no owner and no protection.
The story
- Before 1040A hospice for pilgrims stood on Monte Scalari, near the road the agent identifies as the Via Cassia Adrianea. A monastic community is recorded here from 1040.
- 11th and 12th centuriesGifts from the lords of the nearby castle of Cintoia turned the hospice into an abbey of the Vallombrosan order, a Benedictine reform founded at Vallombrosa, east of Florence.
- 1212Ranieri, Bishop of Fiesole, consecrated the church. It has a Latin-cross plan and stone altars.
- 14th to 17th centuriesThe monks enlarged the abbey: new monastic rooms, the cellars, an apartment for the abbot and cells for every monk.
- 1505A terracotta coat of arms, attributed to the Della Robbia workshop, was set over the main door.
- 1776With few monks left, the abbey was suppressed.
- 1785The church became an ordinary parish church.
- Second World WarGerman troops destroyed the bell tower. Its bell chamber had been the one part of the abbey never altered. Only the foundations are left.
- 2026For sale through Romolini at €2,000,000, with two farmhouses and about 100 hectares.
The advert does not say who has owned the abbey since 1776 or who lives there now. Some rooms in the photographs are furnished and in use.
Sources: Romolini Immobiliare listing, reference 2916; Musei Online, Abbazia di San Cassiano a Montescalari
What it needs, and what it might cost
- Safe and dry
- €180,000 to €460,000
- Everything on the list
- €7,080,000 to €13,360,000
- Each year after that
- €40,000 to €80,000
At €1,500 to €2,500 a square metre, the usual range for restoring a historic building in Italy, 5,000 square metres comes to between €7.5 and €12.5 million. Our lines add up to about the same.
What the photographs show
- From the air the abbey is a closed block of ranges round two courtyards, roofed in terracotta tile. The roofs are on throughout. Ivy has climbed to the eaves on at least two sides.
- The outer wall along the track is coursed stone, about three storeys high, with small openings and a single arched door.
- The first cloister is paved in stone slabs with a carved doorway and oil jars. The walls round it are stained and weeds grow from the upper ledges.
- The loggia above has stone columns and a tile and timber roof in fair order. Its floor is stacked with salvaged tiles and timber, and part of its parapet is loose dry stone.
- The cellar is brick cross vaults on square piers, dry, with a stone floor.
- Several rooms are furnished: a sitting room with a stone hooded fireplace, a study with books and a radiator, a bedroom, a working kitchen. Somebody lives or lived in this wing.
- Other rooms are bare stone with tile and beam ceilings. One vaulted passage has cracked and stained plaster, and a wash-house has lost most of its plaster.
- One farmhouse is a roofless shell under ivy with a solar panel on the ground beside it. The other has its roof.
The work, line by line
| Now: safe and dry | Rough cost | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Full measured survey, structural report and conservation plan | €30,000 to €60,000 | Our assumption |
| Strip the ivy, clear gutters, patch roofs and make every range watertight | €150,000 to €400,000 | Seen in the photographs |
| Next: fabric and glass | Rough cost | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Relay the tile roofs, about 3,000 square metres | €600,000 to €1,200,000 | Our assumption |
| Structural repairs and seismic work to walls, vaults and floors | €1,000,000 to €2,000,000 | From the listing |
| Conserve the church, the cloisters, the frescoed rooms and the Della Robbia arms | €300,000 to €700,000 | From the listing |
| Later: interior and services | Rough cost | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Services and fitting out for 5,000 square metres: power, water, drains, heating, kitchens, bathrooms | €5,000,000 to €9,000,000 | From the listing |
| The two farmhouses, 1,600 square metres, one of them a ruin. Not priced here. | Not costed | From the listing |
Yearly upkeep, €40,000 to €80,000. Insurance, property tax, a resident caretaker, the access road, roof and gutter maintenance, and managing 89 hectares of woodland.
Grants. Owners of protected buildings in Italy can claim tax relief on approved restoration costs, and the culture ministry can contribute. On a project of this size, hire someone whose only job is to find that money.
Condition, as the listing describes it
| General | Needs complete renovation. | From the listing |
| Church | Stone floors, vaults and exposed beams. Part of the old altar survives in front of the apse. | From the listing |
| Bell tower | Destroyed by German troops in the Second World War. Only the foundations remain. | From the listing |
| Services | A well. No heating system. | From the listing |
| Farmhouses | Two, of 1,600 square metres together, entirely in need of renovation. | From the listing |
These are our rough estimates and not quotes. Nobody from this site has been inside the building. We measured from the listing, looked at its photographs, applied published local rates for 2025 and 2026, and raised them for scaffolding, height and heritage rules. Figures are for works only, before architect's fees of 10 to 15% and VAT. Rot, structural movement and asbestos do not show in a photograph. How we estimate.
The seller
Not stated. The abbey was suppressed in 1776 and has been out of monastic hands since. The listing does not name the present owner. Ask the agent.
What you may do with it
Light use. The agent suggests a private house or a hotel. The church, the cloisters and the cellar should stay as they are whatever happens round them. An abbey of this age will be under a heritage restriction even though the advert is silent.
Sacred status
| Consecration | The church was consecrated in 1212 by Bishop Ranieri of Fiesole. The abbey was suppressed in 1776 and the church became a parish church in 1785. Nothing is said about its status now. | Unknown |
| Dedication | San Cassiano. | Checked by us |
Heritage status
| Protection | Not mentioned in the listing. | Unknown |
| What to check | Ask for the heritage decree and for any landscape restriction on the woodland. Works on a protected building need the Soprintendenza's authorisation, and the State has 60 days to buy in your place after a sale. | Unknown |
What comes with it
| Abbey | About 5,000 square metres on three levels in the description, 6,200 in the data sheet. Thirty bedrooms and thirty bathrooms are listed. | From the listing |
| Rooms | Church, two cloisters, one with its well, a covered terrace, a wing of living rooms with frescoed walls and old fireplaces, a kitchen, a cellar on columns, stables with vaults, and a library with vaults and frescoes. | From the listing |
| Land | About 100 hectares: 89 of woodland, 11 of open glades, and 1.4 round the buildings. | From the listing |
| Arms | A terracotta coat of arms of 1505, attributed to the Della Robbia workshop, over the main door. | From the listing |
The dead
| Burials | Not mentioned. A monastery church of 800 years will hold burials. Ask. | Unknown |
Getting there
| Road | An unpaved road. The nearest services are 6 km and 15 minutes away. Greve in Chianti is 13 km, Figline Valdarno 17 km, Florence 30 km and 55 minutes. | From the listing |
| Train | Stations at Greve and Figline Valdarno, by the agent's account. | From the listing |
| Air | Florence airport is 48 km, Pisa 98 km. | From the listing |
People to call
- Selling agent: Romolini Immobiliare, Sansepolcro (reference 2916, "Abbazia Chiantigiana")
- Heritage authority: Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for Florence, Pistoia and Prato
"From the listing" means the seller's agent says so. "Checked by us" means we confirmed it against a public record, linked where possible. "Unknown" is a question to put to the agent before you visit.