Santa Maria a Monte

Santa Maria a Monte is a municipality of the Province of Pisa in the Italian region of Tuscany with 13,192 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2012).

Geography

Santa Maria a Monte is located about 35 km east of Pisa, on the right side of the river Arno. A part of the municipality is located in the southern part of the wooded hills Cerbaie, including the main town with its historic city center, the medieval village Montecalvoli Alto and Cerretti. The southern part of the municipality is located in the Arno level and is crossed by various channels, such as the Grand Usciana. Here lie the districts Montecalvoli Basso, Ponticelli and San Donato.

Santa Maria a Monte is bordered to the north and east of Castelfranco di Sotto, in the south, with the Arno as a limit at Pontedera and Montopoli in Val d' Arno, and on the west by Bien Tina and Calcinaia.

History

The hill of Santa Maria a Monte was inhabited in ancient times. The first documented mention was the place ad Montem in a document from the year 776 Ab 787 is a church named Santa Maria testified. The territory belonged to the diocese from 906 Lucca. Because of its strategic location, the hill has been expanded to 1252 Lucca one of the most important castles ( rocca ) in the Arno Valley and had great military significance. The Pisans conquered the fort in 1261, but they were able to hold only a short time. She returned to Lucca, whose forces were led at the time by Castruccio Castracane. 1327 fell to Florence Santa Maria a Monte, and the old fortress was destroyed. Around the middle of the 14th century the Florentines built the hill still recognizable three circular walls, and use the fort as a base for the conquest of the entire lower Arno valley in the 15th century.

In the 16th century the Tuscan Grand Duke Cosimo I could straighten the Arno. Parts of the old river basin can still be seen near San Donato. From the time of the Florentine rule, the town was an agricultural center in the lower Arno valley. Some noble families of Florence were built estates. In 1868 the then independent municipality Montecalvoli was combined with Santa Maria a Monte. 1925, the municipality of the province of Florence was transferred to the province of Pisa.

Santa Maria a Monte is one of the municipalities of the Tuscan leather processing center in the Arno Valley ( comprensorio del cuoio ). One focus of Agriculture is the cultivation of potatoes.

Culture and sights

Santa Maria a Monte has a characteristic spiral- shaped plan, which is derived from the enclosing wall of the former fortress. Medieval buildings such as the Palazzo del podestà and accessible as a lookout tower Torre dell'orologio. At the highest point of the hill further remains of the old fortress are in excavations in recent years been discovered, among other things, a chapel and a cistern. Other attractions include:

  • Collegiate di San Giovanni Evangelista e di Maria Vergine Assunta - The church was consecrated in 1466. The Campanile is a former tower of the fortress. The church contains a number of works from the 15th century, including a baptismal font of Domenico Rosselli ( 1468 ).
  • Oratorio della Madonna delle Grazie - The small devotional chapel was built in 1498 by a plague epidemic.
  • Chiesa dei Santi Giorgio e Jacopo - The Church in Montecalvoli dates from the 13th century and was rebuilt in 1830.
  • Museo Casa Carducci - In the house of the doctor Michele Carducci, father of Nobel Prize winner Giosuè Carducci lived. It should have been here in 1857 played a later literary processed by the poet tragedy, in which Michele Carducci his son Dante killed with a scalpel.
  • Casa Galilei - home of Galileo's father, Vincenzo Galilei
  • Medicean Villa delle Pianore - The property in the Arno level was initially created by the Medici hunting, and was in the following years several noble families. At the settlement of the Chiesa di Santa Cristina heard all Pianore. The church was built on the remains of an earlier Romanesque church and consecrated in 1596.
  • Osservatorio Astronomico di Tavolaia - Municipal Observatory

Regular events

  • Festa Patrona Beata Diana - festival with procession in the capital, at Easter
  • Festa Patrona Santa Cristina - Festival in Le Pianore in May, the first Sunday after Santa Cristina
  • Festa Patrono San Jacopo - fixed in Montecalvoli in July, the first Sunday after San Giacomo
  • Festa Patrono e Festa Paesana - Hard in San Donato, second Monday in August
  • Fiera Assunta - Hard in the capital, Monday after Ascension, Sagra della Patata with the - theme is the culinary use of the potato

Twinning

  • Fontvieille, France, since 1991

Well-known personalities in the community

  • Diana Giuntini - saint and patron saint of Santa Maria a Monte.
  • Vincenzo Galilei (1520-1591) - composer, father of Galileo Galilei
  • Romano Fogli ( born 1938 ) - football player and coach
Italy Provinces of Italy List of postal codes in Italy List of dialling codes in Italy National Institute of Statistics (Italy) Bientina Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferragosto Sagra (festival) Buti Capannoli Casale Marittimo Castellina Marittima Castelnuovo di Val di Cecina Chianni Fauglia Lajatico Montecatini Val di Cecina Orciano Pisano Palaia Peccioli Riparbella San Miniato
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