Populonia

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Panorama of Populonia Alta
View from the Roman Acropolis with its wide street to the fortifications of today's Populonia.
Cave tombs carved into the rock in the Necropoli delle Grotte .
A so-called aedicule tomb in the form of a house with a gable roof in the necropolis of San Cerbone . To the right a box grave in the form of a chest

Populonia is an ancient place on the Tuscan coast in Italy , which administratively belongs to the city of Piombino in the province of Livorno .

geography

The place is located on a promontory high above the Gulf of Baratti approx. 8 km north of the main town Piombino at 170 m. In 2001 the place had 17 residents. It is in the diocese of Massa Marittima-Piombino .

Populonia Alta

Populonia Alta is the part of Populonia that is still inhabited today and is located on the hill called Poggio Castello today , which was later settled by the Etruscans . The medieval walls that surround the place are still very well preserved. At that time they were mainly used to protect against pirates . The castle itself was built by Jacopo II Appiani at the beginning of the 15th century and restored in the 18th century . A tour through the alleys also leads to the tower of the fortress, from the top of which you have a panoramic view of the sea as far as Elba and the Tuscan mainland. The church of Santa Maria della Croce , located near the fortress entrance, contains frescoes from 1516. They come from the surroundings of Sodoma . The two canvas paintings from here, Trasporto di san Cerbone (18th century) and Vergine con Bambino (14th century) are now in the Museo diocesano d'arte sacra Andrea Guardi in the cathedral of Piombino. Not far from there in Via di Sotto is the Museo Archeologico Gasparri . The state-approved private collection comes from the collection of Curzio Desideri and was inaugurated in 1959.

The ancient city

Ancient Populonia originated on what is now called Poggio del Telegrafo and was an Etruscan settlement called Pupluna or Fufluna . It was the only Etruscan city that developed on the coast. It was the largest iron processing center in the entire Mediterranean region. The iron ore that came from the nearby island of Elba and landed in the port on the Bay of Baratti was smelted there.

An idea of ​​the extent of industrial ore processing, which lasted more than eight hundred years (9th century BC to 1st century BC), is given by the amount of slag tailings of more than one million cubic meters. During the First World War, the hunger for metal led to the reduction of these residues, which were still worth processing because of the inadequate ancient processes. The company Ferromin , which was founded especially for this purpose, did not cease operations until the slag was completely exploited in 1969. As a result of these erosions , the first remains of Tholos graves came to light and thus marked the beginning of the rediscovery of ancient Populonia.

Archaeological Park

The archaeological park brings together the acropolis on the hill and the blast furnaces and workshops for iron ore smelting as well as the necropolis on the plain, the locations of which are a few kilometers apart. The remains of ore processing and various necropolises can be visited on well-marked circular paths, with a visitor center with bookstore and self-service restaurant and an experimental area for schoolchildren attached to the lower area.

The Necropoli delle Grotte is located on the slopes of the hill on which the Acropolis is located. It dates from the Hellenistic epoch from the 4th to the 2nd century BC. Here a mighty system in the form of a rock wall with cave tombs carved out of the limestone was uncovered. In addition, there are a number of tombs which, in the form of narrow passages, also carved out of the rock with steep side walls, lead down into the depths to small burial chambers in which the corpses were buried.

In the necropolis of San Cerbone on the plain near the coast there are three types of burial sites from the 7th to 6th centuries BC. These are tumuli of various sizes, sarcophagi and houses of the dead in which numerous smaller objects made of silver and bronze have been found. The Tomba dei Carri tumulus measures 28 meters in diameter. In its center it contains a dome-shaped burial chamber and next to it two smaller chambers in which the remains of two wooden, bronze-clad chariots were found. Several other, smaller tumuli in various states of preservation are scattered nearby, and on the edge of the burial ground, surrounded by sarcophagi, stands a mortuary in the style of a temple.

On a special path, the Via del Ferro , the iron road, the visitor is introduced to the remains of the workshops in which the ore processing took place. There are also remnants of blast furnaces and melt residues from the production at that time.

The acropolis represents the upper town of the Roman settlement. The earliest traces of Etruscan settlement can be found on the hill opposite the existing place. The remains of Roman temples are grouped around a central square below. A wide paved road lined with buildings leads up the slope. During a tour, the curtain wall that surrounded the city comes to light in some places. In Etruscan times, the settlement extended from the upper town over built-up terraces down the hills to the port and the industrial areas and necropolises in the plain near the coast.

photos

  • Necropoli delle Grotte, burial chamber

  • Necropoli di San Cerbone, Tumulus

  • 25 As coin from Populonia

literature

Web links

Commons : Populonia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official website of ISTAT ( Istituto Nazionale di Statistica ) on 2001 population figures in the province of Livorno, accessed on March 29, 2014 (Italian)
  2. ^ A b Andrea Semplici: Parco Archeologico di Baratti e Populonia. 2008.
  3. ↑ Official website of the Museo diocesano d'arte sacra Andrea Guardi , accessed on March 29, 2014 (Italian)
  4. ↑ Touring Club Italiano: Toscana. 2003, p. 429.

Coordinates: 42 ° 59 '  N , 10 ° 29'  E