Discover Sarteano: Holiday apartment in Sarteano amid the castle, Etruscan culture and thermal waters

Sarteano combines impressive evidence of Etruscan culture with medieval and Renaissance architecture, distinctive festival traditions, walking routes and water experiences. If you choose a holiday apartment in Sarteano, you can tailor your stay to different interests: history and archaeology, relaxing walks or thermomineral pools.

Castle and historic buildings

Castello di Sarteano is first mentioned in a known document dating from 1038. The Cassero comprises four floors and a final terrace; a travertine spiral staircase with 134 steps runs through the building. The castle stands on a massive travertine rock surrounded by lush vegetation and centuries-old holm oaks. Today, the vegetation and holm oaks form a nature park.

The churches also represent different periods. The Collegiata di San Lorenzo dates from the early 13th century, has a Renaissance façade and a Latin-cross floor plan. The Chiesa di San Francesco was founded in the first half of the 14th century and has a travertine façade dating from 1480.

Etruscan culture in the civic museum

Sarteano’s Civic Archaeological Museum is housed in the 16th-century Palazzo Gabrielli. It preserves finds from local Etruscan necropolises dating from the 9th to the 1st century BC. Exhibits include canopic urns, Etruscan and Attic painted ceramics, and ossuaries made of fetid stone.

The museum also includes a life-size reconstruction of the painted Etruscan tomb Tomba della Quadriga Infernale, discovered in 2003 in the necropolis delle Pianacce. The Tomba della Quadriga Infernale was created five metres deep in travertine. Its twenty-metre-long access corridor is decorated with brightly coloured paintings on white plaster. They depict a chariot drawn by two lions and two griffins and driven by a demon, possibly Charun.

Holiday apartment in Sarteano: culture, walking routes and water experiences

The Parco delle Piscine has three pools. They are supplied by continuously flowing water at a temperature of around 24°C, which flows over impressive cascades. The Piscine di Sarteano are supplied with thermomineral water from the Santa Lucia spring; this water also has a constant temperature of around 24°C.

For relaxed walks, the Via dei Mulini is a short, family-friendly route. It begins at Piazza Domenico Bargagli in Sarteano. The Anello delle Pianacce circular route leads to the necropolis delle Pianacce, an important Etruscan archaeological site in the Sarteano area. This offers different options side by side: an easy walk and a route with an archaeological destination.

Festivals, music and regional character

The Giostra del Saracino takes place every year on 15 August in Sarteano as a historical re-enactment of ancient equestrian tournaments. Before the Giostra, the Contrade parade through Sarteano in historic costumes with an ox-drawn wagon; the wagon carries the Palio. The Sarteano Jazz & Blues festival also takes place every August in the historic centre.

Sarteano is part of the Strada del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano e dei Sapori della Valdichiana Senese. This route is associated with Vino Nobile and with wine cellars carved into rock and tuff. From the Chiusi-Chianciano Terme motorway exit, the approach to Sarteano follows the SS478 for around 10 kilometres. When choosing your accommodation, you can therefore weigh up whether culture, walking, water experiences or regional wine and local history should be the focus of your stay.

More destinations for planning your trip

For further destination options, you can also consider Castiglioncello del Trinoro, Sinalunga, Chianciano Terme, Fonteregina, Valiano, Montepulciano, Piazze and San Gimignano.

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