Castiglione della Pescaia

Castiglione della Pescaia
Country	Italy
region	Tuscany
province	Grosseto  (GR)
Coordinates	42 ° 46 '  N , 10 ° 53'  E Coordinates: 42 ° 45 '56 "  N , 10 ° 52' 51"  E
height	4  m slm
surface	208.96 km²
Residents	7,206 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	34 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	58043
prefix	0564
ISTAT number	053006
Popular name	Castiglionesi
Patron saint	San Guglielmo di Malavalle (May 2nd)
Website	Castiglione della Pescaia
Panorama of Castiglione della Pescaia

Location of the municipality of Castiglione della Pescaia in the province of Grosseto

Castiglione della Pescaia is an Italian city with 7206 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) on the Maremma coast , Tuscany in the province of Grosseto . The place is dominated by a medieval castle (12th to 14th centuries) and is now a popular seaside resort on the Tyrrhenian Sea .

geography

The community extends over around 209 km². It is located around 20 km west of the provincial capital Grosseto and around 125 km south of the regional capital Florence .

The port with a bay to the southeast

The districts ( frazioni ) include Ampio (53 m altitude, approx. 60 inhabitants), Buriano (184 m, approx. 260 inhabitants), Macchiascandona (also called Le Palazzine , 32 m, approx. 20 inhabitants), Pian d'Alma ( also belongs to Scarlino, 17 m, approx. 30 inhabitants), Pian di Rocca (13 m altitude, approx. 70 inhabitants), Ponti di Badia (18 m, approx. 20 inhabitants), Punta Ala (38 m, approx. 320 inhabitants ), Riva del Sole (5 m), Roccamare and Rocchette (6 m, together approx. 110 inhabitants), Tirli (404 m, approx. 290 inhabitants) and Vetulonia (335 m, approx. 270 inhabitants). The main town itself has about 4,200 inhabitants.

The neighboring municipalities are Gavorrano , Grosseto and Scarlino .

history

At the time of the Etruscans (9th – 4th centuries BC) the area southeast of the mouth of the Bruna , where today's Castiglione lies, was 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 by a settlement Mansio Salebro , the exact location of which is no longer traceable and which was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire.

In the 9th century, a document from Louis the Pious mentions a Castellione della Piscaria , and Wilhelm von Malavalle - still the patron saint of the place today - is said to have retired as a hermit in this inhospitable area ( malavalle ).

The oldest evidence from the past still visible today is the fortress built by the Seafarers' Republic of Pisa ; the Pisans ruled the port from the 10th to the early 15th centuries. With the conquest of Pisa by Florence in 1406, Castiglione shares its further history with the Medici Republic and in this respect with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from 1569 , with Habsburg-Lorraine from 1737 and with the Italian state from 1860.

In the 19th century, Leopold II initiated extensive programs to develop a canal system through the salt lake, similar to the one that must have existed in ancient times, as well as to drain the bordering swamps to the south. Over the course of the next century, however, work repeatedly stagnated and nature took the land back. Under Benito Mussolini there were forced labor programs with prisoners and landless veterans from the First World War. It was not until the middle of the 20th century that the former marshland could be cultivated and malaria eradicated.

For the Pisans the port was only of strategic importance; Settlers avoided the wetlands. The Medici tried to win over families from the north to grow sugar cane. It was not until the 19th century that the first fishermen settled in the process of improving the climate; Fishing is still a source of income for the place today, with tourism not emerging until the end of the 20th century. Hotels, apartment complexes, campsites, cafés and restaurants reach their capacity limits in July / August, but outside these peak times, moderate occupancy allows sufficient mobility. Outside the bathing season (October to April), many facilities are closed.

Alley in the old town

Pieve di San Giovanni Battista

Church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo in the Tirli fraction, Baroque main altar

Attractions

• The Pisan Rocca goes back to a first tower built in the 12th century high on the hill above the port of Castiglione, which in the following centuries was integrated into an upstream wall ring with two further corner towers; this system encloses the upper town in a triangular shape. The original tower has been heavily modified; it is now privately owned and not accessible to the public. Further fortifications were added by the Florentines in the 15th century.
• Stairways, some with candle arches , run through the old town within the wall ring and include the church and the Palazzo Comunale.
• From the viewing terrace below the inhabited tower, there is a wide view of the place and to the south as far as Isola del Giglio and Monte Argentario .
• Parish Church of San Giovanni Battista, Pieve mentioned as early as 1051 .
• Palazzo Pretorio (medieval, renovated in the 18th century).
• Palazzo Camaiori (built in the 15th century).
• Palazzo Centurioni (medieval, renovated in the 20th century).
• Palazzo dello Spedale (built at the end of the 16th century, then always restored).
• Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Buriano with fresco La natività by the painter Giuseppe Nicola Nasini .
• Church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo in the Tirli fraction, with stucco work by Andrea Ferrari from Lugano , preserves the relics of Saint Guglielmo di Malavalle .

nature

• The extensive pine forests along the fine sandy beaches approx. 7 km north of the village to the Le Rocchette holiday complex and along the bay to the south-east were planted in the Habsburg era as part of the cultivation program ( la bonifica ).
• Between the rivers Bruna and Ombrone, an approx. 1000 hectare marshland (the Padule di Castiglione ) is left to nature. It is still the largest of its kind in Italy today and is a bird sanctuary that borders the Parco Naturale della Maremma , which is only accessible under certain conditions .

literature

• Carlo Carli: Il Libro del Padule. Edited by the Amministrazione Comunale Castiglione della Pescaia.
• Emanuele Repetti: CASTIGLION DELLA PESCAJA. In: Dizionario Geografico Fisico Storico della Toscana (1833–1846), online edition of the University of Siena (pdf, Italian)

Web links

Commons : Castiglione della Pescaia  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Website of the Pro Loco in Castiglione della Pescaia
• Official tourism portal

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
2. ↑ Official website of the ISTAT ( Istituto Nazionale di Statistica ) on the 2001 population figures in the province of Grosseto, accessed on November 1, 2012 (Italian)