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Comune di Grosseto
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Tuscany
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Grosseto (GR)
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10
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474,46
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March 2006
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77,057
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162
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CET , UTC +1
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Marina di Grosseto, Principina a Mare, Montepescali, Braccagni, Istia d'Ombrone, Batignano, Alberese
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0564
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58100
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Grossetani
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St Lawrence
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August 10
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Fiorenza Brioni (since April 18 , 2005 )
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wwwcomunegrossetoit
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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.
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
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 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 (
1470 ).
The belfry was finished in
1402 , and restored in
1911 .
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.
