Toponym of Lazzeretto

Lazzeretto is located along the road that connects Cerreto Guidi to Lamporecchio (PT), beyond the Vincio stream.

Inside, there is a toponym which indicates that this hamlet had a particular historical origin, that can be precisely placed in 1631, when a violent plague epidemic struck these areas: it developed as a shelter for the plague victims of Cerreto, who were removed from the village to avoid the contagion of its population.

Notice that this toponym is unique in Tuscany! You have to leave our region to find other places called 'Lazzeretto' or 'Lazzaretto'.
And it is also interesting to observe that the plague that decimated the population of Cerreto and that caused the creation of Lazzeretto is the same plague of which Alessandro Manzoni talks about in his novel 'I Promessi sposi': just think that in the city of Florence alone, inhabited at the time by about 80,000 people, 10,000 died within two years (1630-1631)!

Today, in this hamlet, the Church of the Madonna della Neve is a place of undoubted historical interest (also venerated elsewhere with the Latin name 'Maria ad nives'), built around 1632 too at the behest of the Bishop where hundreds of people were buried, dead of plague. The structure has been restored several times, until it has lost its original architectural connotations.