History of Castelvecchio sinks in the darkness of millenniums. Perhaps the hill on whose top Castelvecchio rises was inhabited even before the arrival of Etruscans. Certainly it existed during the Longobards age and afterwards it was the property of Volterra's Bishop who, in the year 1210, gave it to San Gimignano, a town quickly delopping. Thirteenth century was for castelvecchio the epoch of military glory. it was quite an impregnable fortress, able to protect San Gimignano against all attacks. Around 1270 Castelvecchio become also a little "Eldorado" for silver, with searchers coming from every part of italy. Its population quickly got wealthy embellished the church entitled to St. Frediano and charged a well-known painter of siena to make a fresco, of which only small pieces remain. In XIV century Castelvecchio begun to decline having lost its importance and a military stronghold, following the construction of the modern Castelnuovo (Newcastle). A century after the "Comune" of san gimignano considered that Castelvecchio was by now an useless burden and an "epicentre of plague", provoking its abandon and its death. The impressive town-walls, towers, church, redoubts, houses were submerged with vegetation, amidst general indifference. Only wood-cutters and shepherds used now and then the ruined buildings. Afterwards even them abandoned castelvecchio, described as "extremely wild" by an historian of XVII.