This historic village, also known as the “Castello”, huddles within walls, accessed by ancient gates: Porta Alberti, Porta al Sole and Porta al Rivellino.
The main feature of medieval villages was the piazza, which all of the powers of the day overlooked: religious, political, civil, and commercial. Certaldo grew atop an elongated hill in an elliptical shape that left no space for a ‘piazza,’ so that function was taken over by the street that is now Via Boccaccio, on which we find the Church, the halls of power (Palazzo Pretorio) and the Market Loggia (Palazzo Stiozzi Ridolfi), today closed by still visible in the walls. The spaces we can currently identify as piazzas were simply vegetable gardens that would provide food for the population in the case of a siege.
Palazzo Pretorio stands on the highest and oldest part of the hill of Certaldo Alto, higher than the old village and set at the intersection of two medieval streets, Via Boccaccio (the town’s main street) and Via del Rivellino (the oldest). Its imposing size made it a focal point for all of the surrounding area.