Castiglione della Pescaia

Castiglione is a town with 7025 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012) at the Maremma, Tuscany in the province of Grosseto. The place is dominated by a medieval castle (12th- 14th century ) dominates and is now a popular seaside resort on the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Geography

The municipality covers about 209 km ². It is located about 20 km west of Grosseto and about 125 km south of Florence.

Among the districts ( frazioni ) include Ampio, Buriano, Macchiascandona, Pian d' Alma, Pian di Rocca, Ponti di Badia, Punta Ala, Riva del Sole, Mare Rocca, Rocchette, Tirli and Vetulonia.

The neighboring municipalities are Gavorrano, Grosseto and Scarlino

History

In Etruscan times (9th - 4th century BC) was the area southeast of the mouth of the river Bruna, at today's Castiglione is covered by a large salt lake. Roman sources ( Catullus and Cicero) mention him as Lacus Prelius. A small port is documented under the name Salebro or in the expansion through a settlement mansio Salebro whose exact location is no longer comprehensible and was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire.

In the 9th century a charter of Louis the Pious mentioned a Castellione della Piscaria, and William of Aquitaine - still the patron saint of the place - should have retired in this inhospitable area ( mala valle ) as a hermit.

The oldest still visible testimony of the past is the scale of the seafaring Republic of Pisa fortress; the Pisans dominated the harbor from the 10th to the early 15th century. With the conquest of Pisa by Florence in 1406 Castiglione shares his story with more of the Medici Republic and so far 1569 with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in 1737 with the Habsburgs and after 1860 with the Italian state.

Leopold II in the 19th century initiated extensive programs for the development of a duct system by the salt lake, similar to that which must have existed in ancient times before, and for the draining of the marshes bordering south. However, in the course of the following century, the work stagnated over again, and the nature brought the country back. Under Benito Mussolini came to forced labor programs with prisoners and landless veterans from the First World War. It took until the mid-20th century, to a cultivation of the former marshland finally succeeded and malaria was eradicated.

For the Pisan port only had strategic importance; Settlers avoided the wetlands. The Medici attempted to win families from the north for sugar cane cultivation. Only in the 19th century settled in the course of improving the climate, the first fishermen; today is fishing a source of income of the village, next to which tourism is entered until the end of the 20th century. Hotels, apartment complexes, camping sites, cafes and restaurants can be reached in July / August their capacity limits, but outside this peak allows a moderate utilization of adequate mobility. Outside the bathing season (October to April) many facilities are closed.

Attractions

  • The Pisan Rocca is a first, created in the 12th century tower high on the hill above the harbor of Castiglione back, which was involved in the following centuries in an upstream wall with two additional towers at the corners; this system encloses the upper city triangular. The original tower was greatly changed; he is now privately owned and not accessible to the public. Other fortifications were added in the 15th century by the Florentines.
  • Staircases, some with arches, run through the old town within the town walls and close the church and the Palazzo Comunale with a.
  • From the observation deck below the residential tower affords extensive views of the town and south to the Isola del Giglio and Monte Argentario.
  • Pieve di San Giovanni Battista, 1051 already mentioned Pieve.

Nature

  • The vast pine forests along the sandy beaches about 7 km north of the village to holiday resort Le Rochette and along the southeast adjacent bay were planted in Habsburg period as part of the cultivation program ( la bonifica ).
  • Between the rivers Bruna and Ombrone a 1000 ha wetland ( the Padule di Castiglione) is left to nature. Today it is the largest of its kind in Italy and is a bird sanctuary that is adjacent to the accessible only under certain conditions Parco Naturale della Maremma.
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