Castles in Tuscany Italy
There are many castles in Tuscany. Some may want to see the castles to explore them or to see the scenery, history, tourist attractions and culture of the region. Some may visit the region as tourists or on a business or study visit. Some may want to see the larger castles or smaller castles. Some might want to see the art in the castles. Tuscany (Italian: Toscana) is a region in Italy. Tuscany is known for its landscapes and its artistic legacy. Tuscan localities have been major historical sites: the historical center of Florence, the historical center of Siena, the square of the Cathedral of Pisa, the historical center of San Gimignano, the historical center of Pienza and the Val d'Orcia.
Tuscany is a region of Central Italy, bordering Emilia-Romagna to the north, Liguria to the north-west, Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, Umbria and Marche to the east, Lazio to the south-east. The territory is two thirds hilly and one fourth mountainous. The remainder is constituted of the plains that form the valley of the Arno River.
The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the late Bronze and Iron Ages parallels that of the early Greeks. The Tuscan area was inhabited by peoples of the so-called Apennine culture in the late second millennium BC (roughly 1350–1150 BC) who had trading relationships with the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations in the Aegean Sea. Following this the Villanovan culture (1100–700 BC) came about which saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms (as was also the case at this time in France and the Aegean after the collapse of Mycenae and Troy). City states developed in the late Villanovan (again paralleling Greece and the Aegean) before "Orientalization" occurred and the Etruscan civilisation rose.
Etruscans
The Etruscans were the first major civilization in this region of Italy; large enough to lay down a transport infrastructure, implement agriculture and mining, and produce vivid art. The people who formed the civilization lived in the area (called Etruria) well into prehistory. The civilisation grew to fill the area between the rivers Arno and Tiber from the eighth century, reaching their peak during the seventh and sixth centuries BC, and finally ceded all power and territory to the Romans by the first century. Throughout their existence, they lost territory to the surrounding civilisations of Magna Graecia, Carthage and Gaul. Despite being described as distinct in its manners and customs by contemporary Greeks, the cultures of Greece, and later Rome, influenced the civilisation to a great extent. One of the reasons for its eventual demise was this increasing lack of cultural distinction, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans.
Romans
Soon after absorbing Etruria, Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace. These developments included extensions of existing roads, introduction of aqueducts and sewers, and the construction of many buildings, both public and private. The Roman civilization in the West finally collapsed in the fifth century and the region was left by the Goths, and others. In the sixth century, the Longobards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their Duchy of Tuscia.
The medieval period
With pilgrims travelling along the Via Francigena between Rome and France came wealth and development during the mediæval period. The food and shelter needed by these travellers fuelled the growth of new communities around churches and taverns. The conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries, split the Tuscan people. These two factors gave rise to several powerful and rich communes in Tuscany: Arezzo, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, and Siena. The balance between these communes were ensured by the assets they held; Pisa, a port; Siena, banking; and Lucca, banking and silk. By the renaissance, however, Florence succeeded in becoming the cultural capital of Tuscany.
Tuscany is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance movement, and its artistic heritage includes architecture, painting and sculpture, collected in dozens of museums in towns and cities across the region. Perhaps the best-known are the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Bargello in Florence. Tuscany was the birthplace of Dante Alighieri ("the father of the Italian language"), Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli.
In the 1400s, the rulers of Florence, the Medicis, annexed surrounding lands to create modern-day Tuscany. The War of Polish Succession in the 1730s, however, ended in the transfer of Tuscany from the Medicis to Francis, the Duke of Lorraine, who would become Holy Roman Emperor. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire by Napoleon, Tuscany was inherited by the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, namely, the Austrian Empire. With the Italian Wars of Independence in the 1850s, Tuscany was transferred from Austria to the newly unified nation of Italy.
Tuscany is divided into ten provinces: ; Arezzo (AR), Florence (Firenze) (FI), Grosseto (GR), Province of Livorno (LI), Lucca (LU), Massa-Carrara (MS), Pisa (PI), Pistoia (PT), Prato (PO), Siena (SI)
Castiglioncello is a frazione of the comune of Rosignano Marittimo, in the province of Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. It stands on a promontory reaching out into the Tyrrhenian Sea, surrounded by pinewoods and hills that fall right down to the sea forming cliffs, little inlets, coves and sandy beaches. Pines, oaks and rocky cliffs covered by vegetation make this region a unique one. The colour green prevails, dotted with the white of romantic villas.
Castello dell'Imperatore (Italian: "Emperor's Castle") is a castle in Prato, Tuscany, Italy. Located near the church of Santa Maria delle Carceri, it is the northernmost castle built for the medieval emperor and King of Sicily Frederick II. The castle was erected by order of Frederick II starting from 1240, over a fortress of the Alberti family, of which today two towers (missing their upper sections) remain. It is one of the four major structures on which the reputation of Frederick as the builder-Emperor rests, and the only one north of the Kingdom of Naples. Its original destination was as Imperial residence, which was annexed to the second (12th century) line of walls of Prato. It was partially surrounded by a moat and was connected to the jails (carceri) from which the nearby sanctuary is named. It has eight towers, like Frederick's Castel del Monte in Apulia.
The Certosa di Pisa, also known as Certosa di Calci, is a former Carthusian monastery, currently the home of the Museum of Natural History of the Territory of Calci, located in the comune of Calci, some 10 km outside Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. The monastery is noted for the fresco, the Last Supper, by Bernardino Poccetti (1597), in the refectory. The Cisternoni of Livorno are a series of three large buildings in the neoclassical style at Livorno, in Tuscany, Italy. They were constructed between 1829 and 1848 as part of a complex of purification plants and storage tanks to the Leopoldino aqueduct; a fourth cisternone planned at Castellaccia was never built. The cisternoni, literally "great cisterns", provided Livorno — a city that is still today one of the principal ports of the Mediterranean — with fresh and, more importantly, clean water throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
La Verna, in Latin Alverna and geographically known as Monte Penna, is a locality on Mount Penna, an isolated mountain of 1,283 m situated in the centre of the Tuscan Apennines, rising above the valley of the Casentino. The place is known especially for its association with Saint Francis of Assisi—it is here that he is said to have received the stigmata—and for the Sanctuary of La Verna which grew up in his honour. Administratively it falls within the Tuscan province of Arezzo and the comune of Chiusi della Verna, Italy.
Ponte della Maddalena (Italian: "Bridge of Mary Magdalene", also known as Ponte del Diavolo, the "Bridge of the Devil") is a bridge which crosses the Serchio river near the town of Borgo a Mozzano in the Italian province of Lucca. It was a vital river crossing on the Via Francigena, an ancient road to Rome for those coming from France and an important medieval pilgrimage route.
The Teatro del Silenzio (or Theatre of Silence) is an Italian open air amphitheatre which is located in Lajatico, Tuscany.
The
Palazzo al Borgo di Corliano is a villa situated near the Tuscany coast, in the
valley between Lucca and Pisa, 2 kilometres from the Spa town of San Giuliano
Terme, 80 kilometres west of Florence.
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