Close to Castel-Pulci, on the spur of a hill overlooking the Valle Morta (a name probably alluding to a battle fought there in 1113) on one side and the valley of the Arno on the other, is Monte Cascioli, now a farm-house, once the strong castle of the powerful Lords of Fucecchio. Here Count Lottario and his mother Countess Gemma held court in 1006 and gave large donations to the Badia a Settimo. Their descendant Ugo joined Ruberto Tedesco, Vicario of Tuscany under Henry III, against the Florentines, who marched out and fought a pitched battle in which Ruberto was killed and Monte Cascioli was stormed and destroyed. From the terrace of Castel-Pulci one looks down upon the broad and fertile plain of the Arno, whose course is marked by lines of shimmering poplars, and the fine mass of Mount Morello rises in the distance. Close to the river bank the beautiful campanile, attributed by Vasari to Niccolò Pisano, of the ancient Badia a Settimo stands out against the green background. The Pulci once owned a strong castle near by of which no vestige remains, but the Badia had been a dependency of the great Lords of Fucecchio since 940, and was inhabited by Cluniacense monks, whose behaviour became so scandalous that in 1063 Count Gugliemo Bulgaro appealed to his friend St Giovan Gualberto for aid, and the saintly abbot of Vallombrosa introduced his own rule. Soon afterwards, by his order, St Peter Igneus went through the ordeal by fire at Settimo in the presence of a large concourse of people. The following inscriptions may still be read bearing witness to the fact:— IGNEUS HIC PETRUS MEDIOS PERTRANSIIT IGNES, FLAMMARUM VICTOR, SED MAGIS HAERESEOS. HOC IN LOCO, MIRACULO S. JOHANNIS GUALBERTO, QUIDAM FUERE CONFUTATI HAERETICI, MLXX. In 1236 Gregory IX, took the abbey and monastery under the immediate protection of the Holy See and gave it to the Cistercians, whose conduct was so exemplary that the Signoria of Florence entrusted them with the administration of the taxes, the maintenance of the city walls and bridges and finally gave the great seal into their keeping. The monks were made exempt from taxes and their revenue must have been large, as every abbot paid a thousand golden florins to the Pope on his investiture. The tall gatetower, once connected with the strong walls built round the monastery by the Republic of Florence, is very fine and a large and curious _alto-relievo_ built up of brick and mortar, of Our Lord and two saints, is above the closed-up door. Under the feet of the Christ is a slab with the lily of Florence and an illegible inscription. Below that again is written— “Anno Domini MCCXXXVI, S.S. Dmn. N. Gregorius IX dedit hoc Monasterium de Septimo Ordin. Cirterc. cum esset liberum et exemptum ab omni regio patronatu, quod in plena libertate a dicto Ordine pacifice possidetur.”