The town of Castel Focognano occupies the east side of the Pratomagno up to the Arno valley in the southern end of the Casentino. The first historical information on Castel Focognano date to the XI century, but its territory has certainly been inhabited since the most ancient times.

A big V-century ara, the remains of an entrance ladder to an ancient temple, some ceramic or black paint fragments, as well as some V-century antefixes and some stone blocks carrying Etruscan carvings have been discovered and testify the presence of the Etruscans here.
Socana probably represented the confluence of important routes that put into communication the Casentino with the Valdarno and, through the Major route, with the Italian regions of the north. There are also traces of the Roman period, while the first villages rising on top of the hills were built in the V and the VI centuries A.D., when the populations were obliged by the Barbarian invasions to leave the valley bottom and look for a refuge on the more defensible mountain areas.
The first historical memory of Castel Focognano dates to 1028, when the castle rose "amidst three gullies, above a cliffy counterfort to the East of Pratomagno" and it was surrounded by a double circle of walls.
The Giannellini family kept it until 1322, when the bishop of Arezzo Guido Tarlati conquered it after six months of siege. Then, it passed to the Ubertini family and it belonged to the Republic of Florence since 1404. The potestà had his seat in Castel Focognano until 1778, when the grand duke Pietro Leopoldo ordered the relocation of the administration office to Rassina.
Since the end of the Middle Ages, the village of Rassina gained more and more autonomy and its position at the confluence of the Arno river and the Rassina's homonym stream fostered its development.
Rassina became one of the first important centres of the area to house manufacturing activities, such as woollen clothes production, linen and hemp weave and silk manufacture. By the end of the XIX century, this town had already become a small workmanship centre as it is still today.
Currently, Rassina is a lively and busy town and its economy mainly lies upon the industrial, handicraft and commercial activities. Moreover, the territory of this town includes the towns of Salutio, a famous castle and hometown to the Tarlati family, and of Carda, a picturesque mountain village that is also a point of departure for walks and tours in the Pratomagno.
Castel Focognano is at five kilometres from the chief town of Rassina and it is at 457 m of altitude. It is on a rocky spur above the Soliggine stream. This town has been the base of the city hall, of which it still keeps the title, until 1778, when the grand duke Pietro Leopoldo relocated the office to Rassina, born as a trading area.
The Podesteria, today turned into a parsonage with a characteristic XV-century lodge carrying the emblems of the ancient noble families, the Torre di Ronda, which houses the centre of documentation on the rural culture, and the Church are particularly interesting. For further information, see the book "Le vicende storiche di Castel Focognano" by Pier Antonio Soderi, edited by Tipo-Lito Arti Grafiche of Sansepolcro.