The Fondazione Dante Arte alla Casa Bianca is a non-profit organization founded in the summer of 2015.
The Foundation is based in Tuscany, in the village of Cascia, municipality of Reggello in the province of Florence. It is located 100 meters from a 12th Century Romanesque church, among the most interesting Valdarno churches for the quality of its sculptures and its architectural structure.
In the artist’s words: “The Foundation is located in Cascia which is the small village where I was born. It lies at the foot of a mountain range that gives great pleasure to those who appreciate nature. Note the fir tree forests on the left ridge toward the Vallombrosa where more than 800 people of high lineage have been known to spend their holidays, the coolness of the trees bringing refreshment to their bodies and souls. There one finds the Abbey of San Giovanni Gualberto. To reach the abbey, vacationers go down to the small station of Sant’Ellero, where a small train designed by a German engineer carries the vacationers to a thousand meters above sea level to the central area of the mountain range to a village named Massanera. Beside it is Monteacuto and Poggio alla Regina where lie the foundations of a Medieval castle. On the right ridge is Pratomagno where during the holy year the faithful erect a cross that can be seen from the highway.
For years this whole stretch of the mountain has been the ideal place for the shepherds of Maremma where their flocks once grazed during the summer. And as they migrated from one pasture to another, they were know to rest in the square beside the locale run my grandfather Filippo, which faces the church built in 1080 by Matilde di Canossa, situated beside the Guardtower of the Consorteria Fiorentina della Lega Cascese.
Today the shepherds and the farmers are no longer present. The Foundation offices are situated only a few meters from the Resco, a stream where the birds sing and the yew, the squirrels and foxes drink the stream’s clear, cool waters. Customs and uses have changed but there is no pain for those who remember the history of the men of DABBENE”.
