The town of Calenzano is near Florence and Prato. It has a population of about 15000 inhabitants and it has one of the most important industrial areas in Tuscany, beyond having a hilly landscape rich in greenery and medieval buildings.

This town takes its name from the Caleninzi, the first family that ruled it, and the XV-century Palazzo Podestarile, the Church of San Donato, dating to the XV century, can be admired inside the city. The XI-century Castle is still visible. Leaving the centre of the town, the zone of the Sommaia can be reached, where other buildings founded in remote times rise amid the greenery.
Liguri and Etruscans harshly fought for the territory of Calenzano in the ancient times. Its geographical position between the Florentine plain and the first Apennines transformed this place into the natural common background of these two populations for centuries, before the Romans put the area under their control.
Their passage left evidences that are still visible, such as the fields division system called "centurizia" and the thick network of roads that linked the ancient Florence with the main Tuscan areas and with those of the Cisalpine Gaul, crossing the territory of Calenzano.
In the Early Middle Ages, the first parishes were built on the remains of ancient Roman structures no longer in use because of the decadence and the fall of the Western Roman Empire. At that time, the territory of Calenzano was divided into the parishes of San Donato tra le due Marine, Santa Maria a Carraia and San Severo a Legri.
Since the XI century, the process of building castles in Tuscany interested this area, too. In this period, the fortress of Calenzano sided with Florence in defending the farmlands by the aggressions of the pro-imperial nobles. Still today, some parts of the huge defensive structure built by the Florentines in this small village are visible.
Originally, the castle of Calenzano belonged to the Counts Guidi di Modigliana, feudatories of the German emperor Henry IV. Therefore, it was thanks to them that the first defensive buildings were raised on top of the Calenzano's hill. Nevertheless, by the XIII century, Calenzano was already a Florentine town hall and, in 1300, it was often the target of military aggressions, as the one carried out by Castruccio Castracani in 1325.
At the half of the XIV century, therefore, more works of reinforcement were realized and they gave the town's urban layout its current dimensions.