PONTASSIEVE, Italy — Nestled on a gentle Tuscan hill near this town just east of Florence, and caressed by the morning fog, sits a medieval castle that was once home to the few prominent noble families who plotted against the Medicis’ rule during the Renaissance, some of whom are believed to have taken refuge here.
For centuries after, the descendants of the nobles and the peasants who served them lived sheltered by the fortress’s crenelated walls or in the nearby country houses, and went to Mass in a rose stone church.
“I remember a procession of over 25 farmers’ families to the Sunday’s Mass here up until the late 1960s,” said Franco Viliani, 80, a former manager of the estate. “It might sound strange for a pseudo-feudal system, but that was a form of inclusion. Afterwards, we have seen some owners once or twice a year.”
Today, the entire estate is deserted and up for sale, castle, church and all. While that might seem an exceptional circumstance, increasingly for Italy, it is not.
While castles and historic mansions in Italy have long been family inheritances, today dozens of them are for sale, even in one of the most conservative real estate markets in Europe.
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At the same time, many of the association’s 5,500 members would prefer never to sell their property, he said. “They have an umbilical cord to that building,” he said. “They were maybe raised there. Selling is not an option, as long as they can resist.”
But while selling may be hard to swallow, too often the only other option is abandonment, especially for castles and monuments not located in tourist regions.
“If a Tuscan owner who sells his mansion can hope in a Russian, British or American buyer to restore his family’s finances, we can’t,” said Francesco Scardaccione, the owner of a historic palazzo and two country estates, and president of the Italian Historic Houses Association branch in the southern region of Basilicata.
“What is going to happen,” he asked, “the day we will no longer be able to afford it?”
A version of this article appears in print on January 28, 2015, on page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Life of Italian Nobility for Sale, Complete With Regulations and Taxes. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
