The municipality of Cantagallo bought the Fortress of Cerbaia, set on a mountain relief in the Val di Bisenzio, in 2004. It was included in the frame of a recovery project of this old ancient construction. In effect, its very name "Cerbaia" denotes the presence of intact and wild woods, populated by deers and other animals.

The construction of this stronghold dates to the XII century and it was carried out in the ambit of Frederick Barbarossa's expansion policy. He ceded the fortress to his faithful feudatories, the Counts Alberti. The purpose of this military garrison was to patrol the road that communicated with Lombardy. Here, the Empire's main military operations, aimed at the annexation of the towns in the Lombardia and Veneto regions, were performed.
In the following years the Counts Rabbiosi settled here and transformed the stronghold into one of their centres of power during the battles to impose their authority over Prato. They contributed to the progressive decadence of the Alberti's dominion and of their feudal system in the Val di Bisenzio.
The last of the Counts of Cerbaia, Niccolò d'Aghinolfo, sold the fortress to the Florentine Republic that planned its dismantling. The potestà of Prato, who was worried about the Spanish troops's arrival, re-established the Fortress of Cerbaia at the beginning of the XVI century. Later, The Novellucci, in the XVII century, and the Edlmann, in the XIX century, bought it.
Even if the Rocca of Cerbaia has undergone a slow process of degradation, it still keeps many parts of its structure: some ruins of the lower walls, the portal, the storage tank and some walls of its ancient interior buildings, among which there is a chapel. There are also the remains of the central keep, that, according to experts, has an architecture similar to the one showed by the towers of the Castello dell'Imperatore in Prato, even though its creation dates to before the city's fortress construction.
There is also a legend about to the fortress. The protagonist is Dante Alighieri as a young man. In 1285, the illustrious poet-to-be knocked at the doors of the castle looking for hospitality. He was refused and he had to spend the night in a shepherds' hut. Dante's hatred towards the Counts Alberti presumably derived from this episode and he wrote words of rage against them in the Divine Comedy.