San Casciano Val di Pesa, a pretty town perched on top of a hill to the south of Florence in the direction of Siena, was under Florentine rule from 1272; later Arrigo VII used it for his headquarters and it was occupied and sacked more than once. Its fortifications date from 1343 while the city walls were built in 1355 and strengthened in the XVi century under Cosimo I. The Collegiata, the Compagnia del Suffragio and the Church of the Misericordia or S. Maria del Prato contain several important works of art.