Rocca San Silvestro
Rocca San Silvestro is a medieval hilltop castle (Italian rocca ) in the Tuscan Ore Mountains ( Colline Metallifere ), which was inhabited for four centuries and is now partially ruined . The almost one hectare facility , located on the top of a limestone cone in the far north of the central Italian municipality of Campiglia Marittima , once served miners and metal smelters as a living and working space. Scientific research into the castle since the mid-1980s has provided mining archeology with valuable knowledge about the living, working and social conditions in an Italian mining community in the late early to early late Middle Ages . The castle has been a major attraction of the San Silvestro Archaeological Mining Park since 1996 at the latest . It is considered one of the most important examples of a manorial settlement in connection with mining and metalworking in Europe.
Location and access
Rocca San Silvestro is about two kilometers north-northwest of the town of Campiglia Marittima as the crow flies . The castle hill can only be climbed on foot via a steep path several hundred meters long. The asphalt road leading to the foot of the castle hill is closed to public car traffic. Most visitors approach the castle within about a kilometer with the help of a narrow-gauge railway through the Lanzi-Temperino tunnel . Alternatively, it is possible to approach it via the mining park's gravel paths.
History and meaning
Rocca San Silvestro was laid out between the 10th and 11th centuries by the Counts della Gherardesca from Pisa . The castle served as a base to - like the Etruscans a millennium and a half earlier - exploit the rich deposits of copper and silver-bearing lead in the surrounding valleys (especially Valle dei Lanzi , Valle dei Manienti ). The counts supplied the mints of the Tuscan cities of Lucca and Pisa with the copper and silver .
Later, the Gherardesca transferred ownership of the castle to noble Substitute ( bailiffs ), who enjoyed their trust and possessed military powers.
The floor plan visible today comes from the last expansion stage (2nd half of the 13th century). At that time, an estimated 200-250 people lived in Rocca San Silvestro, spread over about 42 houses (fireplaces). In order to be able to accommodate new families within the castle wall, existing houses had been divided into two parts or a second floor had been added.
The castle was abandoned towards the end of the 14th century. Political conflicts had weakened the power of the lords of the castle, the " Black Death " ( plague ) decimated the population throughout Europe (especially in the Mediterranean region). Above all, however, it was not possible to convert the metal extraction on the hilltop castle from human physical strength (to drive the bellows) to modern water power . As a result, Rocca San Silvestro was so technically behind other areas of Tuscany that the location became economically unprofitable. After it was abandoned, the castle was only used by shepherds as a shelter for their animals.
Naming
In the Middle Ages the castle was known as Rocca a Palmento . The name probably goes back to the oil mill below the church (Latin palmentum = millstone). The castle was named Rocca San Silvestro after the Holy New Year's Eve , to which the church (first mentioned in 1281) was consecrated.
Archaeological exploration
The archaeological research of Rocca San Silvestro was started in 1984 by the Department of Archeology and Art History (Department of Medieval Archeology) at the University of Siena. It was continued in collaboration with numerous other institutes at European universities.
structure
The ground plan of the castle complex resembles a triangle with rounded corners in the north and west. He's a compromise
- the technical, social and other functions of the buildings and facilities,
- the security needs of the facility (defensive capability),
- the surface shape of the rock on which the castle was built, and
- the tight space that the hilltop offered the builders of the castle.
The castle has a concentric structure that clearly shows urban planning on a small scale:
- The ruling district (so called by the archaeologists) extended from the center to the north of the castle. It was inhabited by the lords of the castle as well as by soldiers, servants and other people who were directly dependent on the lords of the castle. This core castle (or citadel ) was surrounded by a massive curtain wall from the early phase of the castle (10th / 11th centuries).
- To the east of the citadel, immediately to the right of the entrance, was the church of San Silvestro.
- In the west and north-west of the castle was the industrial zone (also called by archaeologists) with facilities for smelting copper and lead containing silver. In addition to the mines in the area, in which the raw materials were mined, these devices represented the real center and purpose of the castle.
- By far the largest part of the outer bailey was made up of the terraced residential area for the miners, smelters and craftsmen and their families.
- The entire castle was enclosed by a ring of walls that was around 400 meters long and had a castle gate. Due to the growth of the castle population, the wall had to be extended several times.
When building the castle, care was taken to ensure that the industrial zone with its fire hazard and toxic fumes, especially from the lead smelting, was diametrically opposite the residential area .
buildings
The castle was built in the typical Romanesque style of the Tuscan style. The most important construction works (wall ring, tower, church) were carried out by specialized migrant workers ( stone masons , masons ). The less demanding, albeit no less extensive, stonemasonry and construction work was carried out by the local residents under the guidance of foreign masters. After their departure and the loss of know-how in subsequent generations, the quality of the work decreased increasingly.
Main road
From the castle gate in the south of the complex, a road led north to the church and the oil mill. Several narrow streets branched off the street into the various quarters of the castle.
citadel
To the left of the church was the narrow entrance to the walled district. The lower plateau of the quarter consisted of a courtyard that was surrounded by various rooms: in addition to open rooms, two cisterns , warehouses and stables, they probably housed living quarters for the staff.
The two-story residence of the lords of the castle stood on the upper plateau of the district. It was created in the first building phase of the castle (10th century) by using the highest rock on the hilltop as a quarry. The residence was adorned with a marble floor that has been partially restored in our days. The rectangular keep (late 11th / early 12th century) on the summit of the hilltop had a base area of 4 by 5 meters.
Church and cemetery
The church of San Silvestro was built in the 11th century with an apse and bell gable . To keep up with the growth of the castle population, it was expanded between the late 12th and early 13th centuries. In 1399 (i.e. after the abandonment of the settlement) the church was one of the few castle buildings that was demonstrably still used for a specific purpose. This explains their relatively good state of preservation.
The castle cemetery was in front of the entrance to the church. While the members of the noble family were buried in brick graves along the church wall, the rest of the deceased were buried directly and in a disorderly manner in the ground. The cramped space conditions led to a high density of burials. In total, the archaeologists recovered the remains of over 300 people. They diagnosed many of them with arthritis (due to occupational overuse) and worm disease (due to poor hygiene ).
Oil mill
The oil mill, located diagonally below the church, was in operation for three months every year after the autumn olive harvest. An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 liters of oil were pressed during this period . The close proximity of the mill to the ruling district and the church, as well as the fact that the castle was originally named after the mill, suggest that oil production was under the direct control of the lords of the castle. Thanks to its many uses ( liturgy , cuisine ), olive oil was a very sought-after and valuable commodity.
Industrial zone
Melting furnaces made of clay stood on the artificial terraces of the industrial zone, which had emerged from quarries for building materials . In them, with the help of hand-operated bellows, silver-containing lead from galena and copper from copper pebbles were extracted . The molten metals were transported through the Valle dei Manienti, northwest of Rocca San Silvestro, to the foreland near San Vincenzo . From there the metals were brought to their destination - the lead presumably in bars to Pisa, where the silver was driven off ( cupellation ).
Residential area
Immediately south below the citadel stood a group of two houses (12th century) that shared a paved, privately used outer courtyard. In the middle of the 14th century, the residents created a vegetable garden there. In the southeast corner of the courtyard, archaeologists found the castle's only known latrine . Because of the proximity of the group of houses to the citadel and their upscale furnishings, the residents were evidently important personalities. Possibly they belonged to the family environment of the lords of the castle.
Most of the houses were grouped in parallel rows on the eastern half of the castle. The houses consisted of one or two floors. The average living space was 27 square meters. Some of the ground floors were used as stables or storage rooms; A ladder led to the upper floor.
Infrastructure for everyday life
A kiln for ceramics stood south-east below the citadel, and an oven on the southern part of the castle wall . Both ovens could be used freely by the residents of the castle. The kiln was initially also used to bake bread. The oven (end of the 13th / beginning of the 14th century) was designed so large that several families could meet the weekly bread needs of several families in just one baking process. After the castle was abandoned, the oven was used as a store for tools and household appliances.
In the higher elevations of the outer bailey there were several cisterns of different sizes. Some were shared, others privately.
Immediately in front of and behind the castle gate - still clearly recognizable today - a mill playing field was carved into several paving stones . The originators were on the one hand guard posts, on the other hand residents and hikers who passed their little free time under the protection of the castle. The watch shifts were not carried out by special guards , but by all male castle residents as regular labor for the lords of the castle.
Technical systems near the castle
A lime kiln was carved into the rocky ground to the southwest below the castle . It was used to produce slaked lime for masonry mortar . The lime kiln was abandoned at the beginning of the 14th century, presumably due to the dwindling influence of the lords of the castle on the inhabitants. From then on, the latter used red clay instead of lime for building and maintaining walls.
Not far from the lime kiln was a race kiln (12th century) for the extraction of iron from iron ore . It covered the castle's high iron requirement. The iron ore (especially hematite ) came from the island of Elba, about 40 kilometers away . It was smelted in Rocca San Silvestro together with limonite and sulphides from the mines in the area.
There was a forge at the foot of the castle gate . Here the numerous iron tools were made and repaired, the one in mining and in the metal processing needed. The forge was in operation from the 11th to the first half of the 13th century.
Today the kiln and the smithy belong to an area for experimental archeology . Here archaeologists try to study historical processes for smelting copper and lead containing silver by trying them out on their own.
See also
literature
- University of Siena , Department of Archeology and Art History, Department of Medieval Archeology (Scientific Director: Riccardo Francovich ): Rocca San Silvestro. The didactic tour . 2nd edition, University Press, Siena, no year (from 1995), no ISBN. With an extensive directory of scientific and popular scientific literature in Italian.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The San Silvestro Archaeological Mining Park ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from the Parchi Val di Cornia website, accessed on May 11, 2014
Coordinates: 43 ° 5 ′ 12 " N , 10 ° 36 ′ 14.2" E