Grosseto

Grosseto is a town and comune in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Grosseto province. The city lies at 12 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvional plain.

Of the some 75,000 inhabitants of the commune listed in the census statistics, grossly 60,000 live in the city proper: the remaining are distributed in several fractions, including Marina di Grosseto, the biggest one, Principina a Mare, Montepescali, Braccagni, Istia d'Ombrone, Batignano and Alberese.

History

The origins of Grosseto trace back to the High Middle Ages. In 803 a document states the assignment of the church of St. George to Ildebrando degli Aldobrandeschi, whose successor where counts of the Grossetana Mark until the end of the 12th century.

In 1137 the city was sieged by German troops led by Henry X of Bavaria, send by the emperor the reinstate his authority over the Aldobrandeschi. The year later the bishopric of Roselle was transferred in Grosseto.

In 1151 the citizens swore loyalty to Siena. When in 1222 the Aldobrandeschi gave the Grossetani the right to have a podestà of their own, together with three councellors and the consuls. In 1244, however, the city passed again to Siena, together with all the Aldobrandeschi's imperial privileges. While Guelph and Ghibelline parties struggled within the city, Umberto and Aldobrandino Aldobrandeschi tried to regain to their family Grosseto. The Senese armies were however victorious, and in 1259 the named a podestà from their city. But Grosseto freed and the year later fought alongside with Florence in the Battle of Montaperti. The following decades saw Grosseto again occupied, ravaged, excommunicated by Pope Clement IV, again free under a republic led by Maria Scozia Tolomei, sieged by emperor Louis IV (1328) and by the antipope Nicholas V in 1336, until it definitively submitted to the most powerful Siena.

The pestilence of 1348 struck hard against Grosseto, whose population in 1369 had reduced to some a hundred of familiar nuclei. Its territory, moreover, was frequently ravaged, as in 1447 by Alfons V of Sicily and in 1455 by Jacopo Piccinino.

The Senese rule ended in 1559, when Charles V handed over the whole duchy to Cosimo I de Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1574 the construction of a line of walls was begun, which is still today well preserved, while the surrounding plain was dried. Grosseto, however, remained a second rate town, with only 700 inhabitants at the beginning of the 18th century.

Under the rule of the House of Lorraine, Grosseto reflourished. It was given the title of capital of the new Maremma province

Main sights

The Medicean Walls

The building of a new line of walls by Francesco I de Medici in 1574, in substition of the older ones dating from the 12th-14th centuries, according to his program of making Grosseto a fortress to protect his Southern border. The design was by Baldassarre Lanci, and the construction was completed 19 years later, under Grand Duke Ferdinand I. Until 1757 the exterior part was surrounded by a ditch with an earth moat. There were two main gates: Porta Nuova, on the North, and Porta Reale (now Porta Vecchia), on the South.

The walls are now used as public park and walk.

The Cathedral

The Cathedral, the main moument of the city, is entitled to the patron St. Lawrence and was began at the end of the 13th century, by architect Sozzo Rustichini. Erected over the already existing church of Santa Maria Assunta, it was ended only in the course of the 15th century (mainly due to the unending struggles against Siena]].

The façade appears of Romanesque style, but is almost entirely result of the 16th century and 1816-1855 restorations: of the originary buildings, it retains decorative parts including Evangelists' symbols. The plant is a Latin cross, with transept and apse. The interior has a nave with two aisles, parted by cruciform pilasters. The main artworks are a Font from 1470-1474 and the Madonna delle Grazie by Matteo di Giovanni (1470).

The belfry was finished in 1402, and restored in 1911.

Roselle

Roselle, now a Grosseto's fraction, was once the main city in the area. Of Etruscan origin, it was built over a hill that offered protection and commanded all the nearby valley. The extent of its dominion is not clear, but probably at its peak included the most part of Vetulonia territory. The city's splendour was ended forever in 294 BC, when, according to Livy, it was conquered by rhe Romans. After the end of the Roman Empire, in the 5th century AD, Roselle was still the most important centre of the area of what is now southern Tuscany. Its gradual abandon began in 1138, when the diocese seat was moved to Grosseto.

In Roselle Etruscan ruins had been discovered.

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Grosseto".