Pietrasanta

Pietrasanta is an Italian town with 23,921 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2012) in the province of Lucca in northern Tuscany.

Geography

Pietrasanta is located about 30 km north of Pisa at the foot of the Apuan Alps. The seaside village of Marina di Pietrasanta is a well-known seaside resort.

The municipal area includes the districts of Capezzano Monte Capriglia, Strettoia ( Montiscendi ) Traversagna ( Pollino ) Vecchiuccio, Vallecchia, Solaio, Vitoio, Castello, Valdicastello, Crociale (Ponte Rosso ), Africa ( Pisanica ) Macelli, Osterietta and Marina di Pietrasanta ( Fiumetto, Tonfano, Motrone, Focette ).

Neighboring municipalities are Camaiore, Forte dei Marmi, Montignoso, Seravezza and Stazzema.

History

Wall remains indicate a settlement already in Roman times. As the founding year of the city is the year 1255, when the Milanese Guiscardo Pietrasanta, namesake of the place, let the feet of an existing Lombard fortress build settlements. During the Middle Ages the rule changed hands several times between the city-states of Genoa, Lucca and Florence. In the 17th and 18th century was followed by a period of decline that was caused among other things by malaria.

Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Archduke of Austria, promoted in the 19th century reconstruction and created by the establishment of schools for stonemasons an economic foundation for the resurgence of the ancient importance as a city of marble.

Economy

Marble processing

The name Pietrasanta (Italian pietra: Stone, santa: holy ) is the program. In fact, the stone processing takes on a special meaning in Pietrasanta. In the nearby nearby marble quarries of Carrara one of the world 's best sculptors marbles called statuario is broken, which is further processed in many companies in and around Pietrasanta. Less pure, white and gray varieties of marble obtained here are also a cheap and practical building material in Pietrasanta. Many everyday items such as window sills, mailboxes, sidewalks, electrical boxes or garbage bins, which are all made of the finest white marble, can be found in the city.

Sculpture and Crafts

A number of stone masons, sculptors and other artists working with stone, have settled here. A well-known artists alongside other is Fernando Botero. However, marble is not the only material that is used in crafts. Many artists, by the way almost all very old Italians, working with other materials, especially with copper and glass, are placed with the elaborate mosaics.

The local repair shops usually have an excellent, partly international reputation. Well-known personalities such as Silvio Berlusconi and Pope John Paul II have been given statues in order. Ironically, had the time George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein subcontracted the same workshop at the same time.

Attractions

• The Cathedral of San Martino was built in the 14th century on site of an earlier church and restored in the 17th and 19th century and changed. The Camapanile dates from the 16th century.
• The Clock Tower was built in the years 1530-1533. His current condition is from the year 1860.
• The church of Sant'Agostino, a monastery church of the Augustinian Canons, built in the 14th century in the Romanesque style. The tower is from 1780. Today the building is a cultural center with a library and museum. Here you will find among others the work of the Immaculate Conception of Astolfo Petrazzi.
• In the Cathedral Square are many interesting palaces to find, among others, the Palazzo Moroni from the 17th century, which now houses the Archaeological Museum, or the Palazzo Panicchi from the 15th century.

Community partnerships

Pietrasanta has partnerships with the following cities and towns:

• Grenzach- Wyhlen ( Germany )
• Montgomery (United States)

Personalities

• Eugenio Barsanti (1821-1864), Italian engineer and inventor of an internal combustion engine, was born in Pietrasanta
• Giosuè Carducci ( Enotrio Romano; 1835-1907 ), Italian poet and literary historian, was born in the district Valdicastello. In 1906 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Mina ( born 1940 ), singer, was in Marina di Pietrasanta her first success
• Francesca Piccinini ( born 1979 ), Italian volleyball player