A noble story that continues for centuries

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the fortified palace built on pre-existing structures was transformed into a country residence and in the eighteenth century, sold to the Marquis Fonti Biscaccianti, it was adapted to the stylistic canons of the time. At the end of the 18th century the villa appears in the Bartoli Cadastre, where "the palace with the Labyrinth and a circular grove nearby" is represented. In the nineteenth century it appears in the Gregorian land registry "always with forms similar to those of today but with much more important external arrangements of the greenery". They were set on large orthogonal avenues, of which only the eastern one lined with cypresses will survive today, and with a large area and a formal garden, now barely recognizable in the context of the landscape.
The building has an L-shaped plan and rises for three floors, to which smaller volumes are attached to the back almost in the form of a courtyard and is completed by an internal family chapel, and by a bell tower at the back it is assumed there was also a External church no longer present today. On the first "noble" floor, which is accessed after passing an elegant staircase, at the top of which is the stucco decoration with the coat of arms of the Fonti Biscaccianti family, there are rooms characterized by beautiful decorations painted in stucco dating back to the fourteenth century, where there are three representative halls including the "Hall of Mirrors" and "Hall of fire place ".
The family of the Counts of Montegranelli has very ancient origins and lived in Gubbio for 400 years. It originates from the famous lineage of the Counts Guidi, Palatini of Tuscany and Lords of Casentino, who became Counts Guidi of Mantua and Marquesses of Bagno. The Guidi was responsible for the construction of the fortified palace which, over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries, was transformed into a stately country residence. At the end of the eighteenth century. it was sold to the Marquises Fonti Biscaccianti. The noble Guidi family in the thirteenth century was divided into various branches, including Aginolfo, progenitor of the Counts of Romena and Montegranelli (the noble lineage is mentioned by Dante Alighieri in canto XXX of hell). Antonio di Montegranelli, a famous Guelph who had to fight the Ghibelline troops led by the Count of Bagno descendant of the Guidi Counts, in 1389, descended from Count Aginolfo, remaining a prisoner of this relative of his. Antonio was then appointed Podestà of Florence in 1406.
Count Azzo, of Antonio, banished and extorted by the Florentine Republic, took refuge in Gubbio together with his brother Alessandro. There are also news relating to Dragone Biscaccianti, captain of the Duke of Urbino in 1436 and Agostino Nicolelli De Biscazzantibus, Gonfaloniere in 1441. In 1468 we find this illustrious family definitively established in Gubbio, in the person of Azzo, Knight of Great Merit, ascribed to citizenship and the Gubbio patriciate as shown in the books of the Reforms. Giuliano's sons, Giambattista and Sebastiano, were the founders of the Counts of Montegranelli, whose descendants were illustrious citizens. From this family three different branches were formed: that of the Biscaccianti, of the Biscaccianti Zeccadoro (constituted by the union of the descendants of Scipione Biscaccianti with the Casato Zeccadoro for the marriage which took place in the seventeenth century with the Countess Lucrezia), and finally that still existing of the Biscaccianti Della Fonte or Fonti who had derived their name from the source placed in front of their palace and which they wanted to be quartered in the coat of arms to distinguish themselves from the other two branches. The ancient coat of arms of the Biscaccianti family was split in blue and red with the gold uniform; in the first a silver fish surmounted by a star; in the second three golden mountains. Subsequently, the coat of arms is always represented by the field cut in red and blue by a band of gold, three groups of mountains in red, a source in blue. Since 1969 Pierotti family is the owner .