Beyond the Yalla Dog

In 1855 Sir John acquired a crumbling ruin – the remains of Castello di Vincigliata, and at the height of the Romantic era set about transforming it into medieval castle, complete with crenellated tower, into setting fitting for a novel by Mrs Ann Radcliffe! 

Ironically this castle,  originally owned by the Usimbardi – who were friends of Dante and who introduced paned glass to Florence , was reduced to ruins during a raid on behalf of the Pisans led by non other than English fourteenth century mercenary leader and knight Sir John Hawkwood.

Hawkwood, who changed sides from Pisa to Florence at the sight of a larger purse,  is nontheless famously depicted as a saviour of Florence by Paulo Ucello on the walls of the Duomo in Florence.

Temple Leader himself became so fascinated by the similarities between himself and Hawkwood that he wrote a book about him – still available in second hand bookstores in original and, below, in translation.

Not much later the castle had a second unfortunate connection with England  - in 1345  there was a  general crash of Florentine banks  due to bad debts by King Edward III of England for his Cressy and Poitiers campaigns.  Neither the sum borrowed, or the interest thereon was  ever repaid,  as Florentine people rarely fail to remind any Brit who dares to grumble  about high prices!!

As a result of the crisis the castle owners became bancarotta (bankrupt) and it was purchased by Niccolo, son of Ugo degli Albizi, a scion of  the wealthy merchant and banking family famous for trying to get Cosimo il Vecchio out of Florence. So it next housed a branch of the Albizi family, probably for politial reasons now using the name of  Alessandri, for nearly three hundred years – but with the decline of this family fortune it once again sank into decay.

Castello Vincigliata and its environs pictured by Joseph Pennell, c. 1904

Whatever problems Sir John Temple Leader might have had in the UK that caused his precipitate departure, they seem not to have worried the reigning British Monarch, and during one of Queen Victoria’s trips to Florence she came to visit and is shown in the magazine cover below sketching Il Giardino delle Colonne, which was one of the garden features Temple Leader added to the castle.  

Sir John Temple Leader – who died childless in 1903,  surely deserves his place in history for his restoration of this fantastic building and perhaps even more for restoring it’s surrounding woodland and farm area, which due to excessive quarrying had looked like a moon landscape when he bought it.

The Castle’s connection with England didn’t end with the dissolution of Leader’s  properties however - Between 1941 and 1943 it served as an Officers prisoner of war camp known as Castello di Vincigliata Campo PG12 - or alternatively as the

Italian Colditz!.

Amongst the prisoners were some high ranking British and Commonwealth officers, including Major-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart who was employed by the Italian government in the Armistice negotiations with the Allies in 1943 and  was alleged to be the model for the flamboyant Brigadier Ritchie-Hook in Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy.

Sir Adrian wrote,  ‘We learned that Vincigliati (sic) had belonged to an Englishman, a man called Temple Leader.  We considered he had restored the castello in the most thoughtless fashion, giving all his attention to what went on above ground, and regardless of the many underground passages that he had sealed up. He made things very difficult for us”. After five attempts and seven months of tunnelling he managed to get out notwithstanding Temple Leader’s “thoughtlessness” and avoided capture for 8 days in the Italian countryside disguised as an Italian peasant. This was some achievement considering that he did not speak Italian, wore an eye patch, had a hand missing after an attack in WW1 + many other distinguishing injuries – and it says a lot for the generosity of the Italian people that they risked sheltering him given the ferocity of the reprisals taken against anyone found so much as offering succour to a POW or partisan.

Several other prisoners did finally manage to escape – many during the chaos following the armistice in 1943 – and most returned to active service.

Other distinguised prisoners included: - Air-Marshal Owen Boyd,  Lt-General Richard O’Connor, Lt-General Philip Neame, plus New Zealander Brigadiers Reginald Miles and James Hargest.

The photo above shows Lt-General Richard O’Connor (centre, middle distance) along with Brigadier John Combe (left), Lieutenant-General Philip Neame (centre) and Major-General Michael Gambier-Parry (right), and following their capture in North Africa in April 1941 – after which they were transferred to Vincigliata.

The castle is now available for courses and weddings and i am delighted to be revisiting it to taste it’s renowned Testamatta wines - awarded 98% satisfaction by the Wine Spectator recently – with a group later this  week.