The Hole

This term was used by locals when they would pass through the second walls through a narrow alley leading to the main street, Via Italia. This is not a door but rather an opening that arose when it was no longer necessary to defend the village from enemy attacks, probably after the middle of the sixteenth century when the town joins Tuscany under the Grand Duke di Medici. In fact in a 1588 document directed to the inhabitants of Montemerano, the Medicis obliged those who had particular passages in the castle walls to arm their doors and sturdy their gates.