The 2012 campaign aimed to clarify the exact sequence of events prior to the construction of building 3000-3001, built within the third quarter of the 13th century.
Evidence was uncovered that mainly related to the 11th-13th century, when, according to written sources, the ownership of the castle passed from the hands of families that were part of the town’s feudal aristocracy to the monastery of Vallombrosa and later, in the second half of the 13th century, to the Florentine family of the Mozzi. They transformed the castle into a centre with an economic-agricultural base for the management of the various landholding owned by the family in the territory of Rignano.

Wall 3229, built directly on the bedrock, was only preserved for 2-3 courses, and for a length of a few tens of centimetres. However, it was possible to see that it was a dry-stone wall built mainly of sandstone ashlar blocks, and on a north-east/south-west alignment, perpendicular to the contours, which in this part of the site slope in the direction of the curtain wall, creating a series of changes in level. In fact, wall 3229 was cut by the creation of a sort of terracing that regulated the change in height of about 70-80 cm that crossed trench C3, dividing it into two parts. The north-eastern part was higher, the south-western part lower. Of note, the use of a large dolium fragment in the wall’s core.

Uphill, large Albarese stone slabs formed the surface of the terracing. On this surface very slight traces were visible of what seemed to be a small dividing wall in reused sandstone ashlar blocks (USM 3243), bonded with clay. It formed a right angle in correspondence with what would have been the ideal continuation of wall 3229, creating in this way a small room uphill from the terracing.
Among the clearest occupation evidence was a hearth with a diameter of about 60 cm (US 3230) built close to the terrace wall, inside which were two spindle whorls made of refined clay, similar to 11th-12th century examples. The hearth also contained residue consistent with the burning of logs about 4-5 cm in diameter.

The rooms described above showed evidence of restructuring. In particular, the dividing wall 3243 was reconstructed as a wall that was dry-stone built or constructed using very little earthy mortar (USM 3206). The floor inside the area seemed to have been raised by about 15 cm by the formation of a residual layer of clayey soil, probably the result of the dismantling of structure 3243 dating to the previous phase.

The sequence of 11th century and late 12th-early 13th century occupation phases and structures was radically transformed by the construction of building 3001, whose foundations cut all of the earlier deposit. The new structure was on a completely different alignment to that of the earlier phases, which were completely covered by dumps of materials, which levelled the surfaces of the earlier rooms. The pottery finds and the stratigraphic sequence date this phase of radical transformation to between the first decades and final quarter of the 13th century.