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Pierle (Arezzo province)

A town of Northern Tuscany — a frazione of Cortona — 43°15.5N, 12°6.5E. Altitude: 486 m.
[image ALT: Seen thru a screen of tree branches, still bare at the end of winter, a truly massive castle, a roughly square block with walls 5 to 8 m tall and a square tower some 25 m in height above them, huddled at the foot of which sit a couple dozen low stone houses. It is a view of the village and castle of Pierle in Tuscany (central Italy).]
Pierle: castle and village, telephoto from several miles away.

Pierle is a village in the comune of Cortona, about 17 km WNW, although the nearest towns are the frazione of Mercatale, and the comune of Lisciano Niccone across the Umbrian border, 3 and 4 km east, respectively.

[image ALT: A small single-arched stone bridge.]

[ 5/27/05: 1 page, 7 photos ]

Without a doubt, Pierle's most striking sight is the castle — not that you could miss it for a second.

[image ALT: A small single-arched stone bridge.]

[ 5/21/05: 1 page, 3 photos ]

At the entrance to Pierle though, before the village and well beyond the walls of the castle compound, the visitor gets an unsuspected bonus: the little Romanesque church of S. Biagio.

One's faith need not be worn on churches, of course:

[image ALT: A bit of rudely stuccoed stone wall with part of a brick arch and its wooden door, but mostly, on the right, a niche, about 30 cm square, with a plaster medallion of the Madonna and Child surrounded by stylized flowers and vines. It is a madonnina, or wayside shrine to the Virgin Mary, on a garage in the village of Pierle in Tuscany (central Italy).]

Here, the Mother and Child are remembered on a 20c toolshed.

[image ALT: A rudely stuccoed stone or concrete lean‑to. It is a garage in the village of Pierle in Tuscany (central Italy).]
[image ALT: A shed, of irregular stone and mortar masonry, at the edge of a field near a wood; it is about one meter tall and one meter wide, with a sloping tiled roof and a rectangular opening across the entire front, thru which one can see an arched niche with what may be a painting or a statue, in front of which some flowers have been laid. It is a Marian shrine near the village of Pierle in Tuscany (central Italy).]

And just out of town, on the road to Mercatale, a wayside shrine; the flowers are fresh.

The gentle reader mustn't imagine I'm an expert on the town. The photographs you see on these pages were taken in a single afternoon, on an unplanned if irresistible walk; see the entry in my diary, Mar. 20, 2004. For further (and much better) information, you should see the websites linked in the navigation bar at the bottom of the page.

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Page updated: 27 May 05