Castelfranco di Sotto

Castelfranco di Sotto is a municipality with 13,226 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2012) in the Province of Pisa in the Tuscany region of Italy.

Geography

The municipality covers 48 km ². It is located about 45 km west of Florence and 30 km east of Pisa on the Arno river and the canal Usciana.

The districts include Chimenti ( partial), Galleno ( partial), Orentano, Staffoli ( partially, also one of Santa Croce sull'Arno ) and Villa Campanile.

The neighboring municipalities are Altopascio (LU), Bien Tina, Fucecchio ( FI), Montopoli in Val d' Arno, San Miniato, Santa Croce and Santa Maria a Monte sull'Arno.

History

Castelfranco di Sotto began in the 11th century under the name Castelfranco nel Valdarno di Sotto (Eng. Exempt castle in the lower Arno Valley ) as a merger of the towns of San Bartolomeo a Paterno, San Michele in Carpugnana, San Piero a Vigesimo and San Martino in Catiana under the dominion of Lucca. The exemption resulted from a decree of the government of Lucca, who wanted to thereby promote the settlement of the border region to Florence and Pisa, to secure their own borders. In the first half of the 13th century the city wall was built with sixteen towers. The Praetorian Palace was built in the 15th century. By region or province reform in 1925 under Mussolini exchanged a few places in the province of Pisa to Livorno, in return, the province of Pisa received the places Castelfranco di Sotto ( and Montopoli in Val d' Arno, Santa Maria a Monte, San Miniato and Santa Croce sull'Arno ) of the province of Florence.

Events

Every third Sunday of May, the Palio dei Barchini con le Ruote ( Palio of the boats on wheels) instead. Here come the four Contrada San Michele in Caprugnana, San Martino a Catiana, San Bartolomeo and San Pietro a Paterno a Vigesimo in Piazza Garibaldi against each other. The event took place in historical costumes for the twenty-second time on 18 May 2008.