Vivo d’Orcia is a modern mountain village where it is worth stopping even just for the fresh air, the wonderful waters and renowned restaurants.
Contea dell’Eremo and Cervini Palace
Ancient seat of the Eremo Camaldolese del Vivo, it was presumably founded around the year 1000. The village underwent a profound transformation in 1538 when it was ceded by Pope Paolo III to Cardinal Marcello Cervini who later became new Pope. The family of Counts Cervini besides building the great sixteen-century castle, a project attributed to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger undertakes an important series of changes exploiting the waters of the stream, giving a new imprint to the economy of the area.
Thus, some mills, a copper works, an ironworks, an olive mill, a paper mill for wood processing and, around 1920, also a hydroelectric power station were built. Today, these factories are now abandoned, covered by dense vegetation of area, but the county still lives.
This palace still inhabited by the descendants of the Cervini family, constantly surprises with its excellent state of conversation and the unimaginable dimensions.
Church of San Marcello
The Church of San Marcello is the upper hermitage of the Camaldolese monastery of Vivo d’Orcia, founded at the beginning of the 12th century. The church has the cultural influences of Romanesque art of the Pisa and Lucca area. Very recognizable facade decoration of arches and columns with motive widespread in Siena, while the crowning of the apse for hanging arches has Lombard influences. The church underwent restoration at the beginning of the century.
Vivo d’Orcia: the history of the town of water
The lack of natural water resources since the 12th century pushed the Municipality of Siena to carry out major works to find enough water for the citizens ‘needs. This primary good has always been in short supply in Siena and the little water that arrived in the wells, mostly from the Fonte Gaia and Fontebranda spoils, was unhealthy, making the hygienic and health condition of the urban population disastrous. Due to the sewage infiltration of cesspools, typhus had become an endemic disease and periodically sowed death, especially in districts where arrives, little over than trickle of water to be exploited for all daily uses. The Ermicciolo source, which flows on the northern slope of Mount Amiata near the village of Vivo d’Orcia, just little over than 1,000 meters above sea level, was shown as the first time the only one able to solve the problem of water supply of Siena in 1890.
Scientific analyses were then carried out on the waters of the Vivo, comparing them with those that flowed through the Fontebranda and Fonte Gaia spoils to evaluate the most suitable ones. Negative judgments about the quality of water from these sources were often repeated by scientist, but it came out that due to the low depth of the galleries and the permeability of the surrounding ground, both the water of Fontebranda as that of Fonte Gaia, do not correspond to the hygienic requirements of drinking water, healthy and pure“. On the contrary, the samples taken from the Vivo springs “in glass tubes welded to the flame” and subjected to “4 gelatin culture tests in the Esmarch style tubes”, turned out to be perfectly sterile and absolutely free of microorganisms, abundant water and best quality.
As a result of the survey, the Commission mutually declared that to solve Siena’s water problems it was necessary to ensure that the city had at least 40 litres of water per second, and that only the springs of Mount Amiata had an adequate flow rate.
In particular, the most appropriate water was that of Vivo d’Orcia. Thanks to the best conditions of altitude and the location in a territory sparsely inhabited, this water had very good quality. While all of these surveys took place, the City Council decided to break the delay and on the 14th of September 1895 signed a compromise with Cervini Counts, owner of the land where the source dell’Ermicciolo flowed, making sure them not to damage the economic activities located along the steep course of torrent Vivo, who benefitted of the driving power of the water. The Battistini and Depratti sawmill with the Ironworks Franchi (who actually was carpentry), the Mill of Campiglia where they milled corn and chestnuts, together with cereals and Saggiano mills. In order to accurately document the water quality of the Vivo water, two further analyses were carried out in May 1903, which attested that “the water of Vivo d`Orcia is chemically pure and offers the most enviable requirements at an excellent drinking water […]The excellent water of the Vivo, which combines all the good hygienic qualities with a mild temperature and great abundance, authorizes us to consider the city that will be fed by it fortunate.”
In 1908 the City of Siena finally begun the construction of the aqueduct of Vivo, allowing Siena to finally have a plenty of home-pure water essential for a decent life, achieving the dream not to drink more from the spoils and from wells, poor and always more polluted water. Actually, the time originally planned for the construction was not respected, but it is clear that the unexpected obstacles were many, even for the modest equipment with which the workers were working. They operated with sledgehammers and pickaxes to dig and small winches to lay the heavy pipes, lead to injunctions. With these few tools were made more than 62 km of pipelines, leak-proof joints, bridges within which run high-pressure pipes, trying to shape forested hills, the territories in the landslide, rivers, and land in very strong slope. On the 15th of May 1914, at the end of a path of 60 km, the first water coming from the Vivo d’Orcia source arrived at Porta San Macro in Siena and over time typhus would gradually begin to disappear and mortality would decrease.
Today, the water distribution network serving the Municipality of Siena together with extensive areas of neighbouring municipalities, managed by the Aqueduct of the Fiora S.p.A., is fed by the Vivo and Luco aqueducts, built over the past century by the Sienese municipal administration.
The aqueduct supply sources of Vivo d`Orcia together with the source of the Ermicciolo in the municipality of Castiglione d`Orcia, are currently constituted by Ente sources, in the municipality of Arcidosso, and by Burlana sources in the municipality of Seggiano, captured in the years 50, allowed us to increase the water resource which is no longer sufficient to meet the growing needs of the city and the territory, once served only by the sweet and unmistakable Acqua del Vivo.