St Francis of Assisi allegedly stayed in a straw hut on the spot where later Nerio di Bulgaruccio would build a small church, which in 1400 was enlarged to create the monastery known as La Scarzuola. Architect Tommaso Buzzi bought the area surrounding the convent in 1956 and in the ensuing twenty years created the Citta Buzziana - an architectural folly inspired by neo-Mannerism referred to as his 'autobiography in stone'