The estate's history is very ancient, stretching back more than one thousand years. The remains of Castello di Terriccio take us back to the Middle Ages. Standing in a strategic position atop the hills, the castle kept a weather eye on the entire coast, and on the watchtower from which the Pisans could spot incoming Saracen corsairs in good time and elude their devastating raiding parties.In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the bishop of Pisa, a nephew of Boniface VIII, rented the estate in perpetuity, on behalf of the Roman Church, to the Counts Gaetani. The family held it for five centuries, during which time the fortified castle became an increasingly substantial farm. To meet these new needs, the cultivation of the area's traditional crops, wheat, olives and grapes, was rationalised with the construction of the farm.The main buildings were erected in the 17th century, to be followed later by the cellar. At the end of the 18th century, the branch of the Gaetani family that owned Terriccio remained heirless. The estate, which has great mining potential with its reserves of iron, copper and other minerals deep under the hills, was acquired by Polish emigrés, the Princes Poniatowski, who retained it until the First World War.