Mazzolla is a small village, which lies about 7 kilometres away from the municipality of Volterra. It stands on a hill surrounded by countryside and woods, and still retains the typical configuration of a village perched up on its hilltop, immersed in peace and simplicity.
Built on an Etruscan settlement, called Mazzum, the first historical document that mentions Mazzolla dates back to the year 1000. It states that during the so-called “Alum war”, or the family feuds between the nobles of Volterra, who wanted to control the alum mines, which had been discovered a little earlier, Lorenzo the Magnificent decided to subdue Volterra once and for all, and so, in May 1472, Mazzolla also was besieged and razed to the ground by Florentine troops.
Today in Mazzolla, you can visit the small church dedicated to the martyr San Lorenzo, with its ancient Romanesque façade, and the splendid residential villa, owned by the Viti Family. As a result of the different, overlapping styles, from the Middle Ages to the 1800s, in the spacious garden, there is a large, 18-metre long, oval pond, and at the corners you can still clearly see the two defence towers looking out towards Volterra. The small houses that make up the little town surround the villa and the church forming a cosy, welcoming inhabited microcosm, of which the 46 residents who live there are like the custodians of a time and space where simplicity and a slow pace are the things of real value.
La Pecora Nera B&B, created by the restoration of the last part of the old convent that was once an integral part of the village, is the perfect place to spend an authentic holiday, in a small corner of Tuscany that still preserves the special harmony between man and nature.