Walking tour of CASTIGLIONE DELLA PESCAIA [4K] June 2024 W/DESCRIPTION

Hello everybody! Today we will visit a small castle overlooking the sea jewel of the Maremma Castiglione della Pescaia! The entire ancient village is surrounded by walls And at the top there is the castle The castle is private property and it is not possible to visit it But you can walk all the alleys around the castle itself along the ancient walls And the watchtowers that stood to control the raids of the Saracen pirates From the 1500s until the early 1800s Tuscany was the victim of pirate raids Mainly originating from the Maghreb and the Ottoman Empire Who mainly departed from Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, Salé and other ports in Morocco Several times over the centuries, they were looted and destroyed the coastal cities of Latium, Tuscany, and Liguria. the most famous barbarian pirate was probably Khayr al-Din, known as Barbarossa Who in 1534 sacked the island of Giglio And took all 632 inhabitants of the island as slaves It is reported that among the deportees was Rosa Pannilini who would become a favorite of Suleiman I, to whom she would bear a son. To fight the pirates Along the entire coastal stretch of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany A network of watchtowers and castles was built In the municipality of Castiglione della Pescaia alone there are 4 castles in addition to the one we are visiting there is the castle of Punta Ala the Fortresses of Rocchette and the watchtower of Cala Galera The village has had two completely separate lives Of Etruscan origin during the Roman empire the area was inhabited traces of an ancient Roman aqueduct were found And of a Roman villa in the area now called the Padulines The area was an ancient commercial port And it connected to the nearby Aurelia Street Fall of the Roman Empire Nothing remains in this area the great salt lake Lake Prile Which opened up in front of Castiglione della Pescaia A very large lake that reached as far as Grosseto and Roselle Over time and lack of maintenance it had become a swamp That lasted until the 1700s Disappeared due to the reclamation works of the Lorraines sotot the direction of Leonardo Ximenis for several centuries after the fall of the Roman empire the area was practically abandoned Castiglione della Pescaia began to revive when in 962 the whole area was ceded to Pisa by Otto I of Saxony, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Starting in the 10th century, the first nucleus of the castle, the Pisan Tower, was born and defensive walls were created that protected the houses in the village the wealth of the area was salt production it was precisely the salt pans that attracted the attention of the republic of Siena For salt and grain the Sienese occupied much of the Maremma But they could not occupy Castiglione della Pescaia During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Pisan control over the castle diminished, and the village was established as a free commune, although the Pisans on several occasions returned to rule for some periods At the end of the 14th century, Castiglione della Pescaia, under the protection of Florence managed to rid itself of the Pisans In 1300 the severe economic crisis, pirate raids combined with the plague of 1348, caused the abandonment of the lower village. The population moved to the upper area, around the castle whose fortifications were strengthened. In 1432 the Sienese occupied the castle but for a few months and in 1447 the castle was conquered by the king of Naples, Alfonso V of Aragon who held it until 1460 In that year, through the mediation of Pope Pius II, was sold for 50,000 florins to Antonio Piccolomini of Aragon (nephew of the pope) who in turn, in 1464, granted it to his brother Andrea.

Conquered by Turkish-French militias, and later, by the Spanish during the Sienese War, it was sold in 1559 to Eleanor of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I dei Medici, upon whose death it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany The loss of strategic importance led to the decline of Castiglione as a military post. The castle, located at the northwestern corner of the walls, was also expanded in the 15th century by the Aragonese with the construction of the walls that join the Pisan Tower to two towers of the city walls, delimiting the inner courtyard Thus taking on characteristics similar to the Spanish coastal towers The entire complex underwent renovations in later centuries, first with the Lorraines in the late eighteenth century and in the early twentieth century under the direction of the architect Lorenzo Porciatti The castle has been the protagonist of numerous historical and legendary episodes. Prominent among them is the siege of 1442 during which the inhabitants of Castiglione resisted thanks to the miraculous intervention of Our Lady of Grace whose statue still stands today in the castle chapel Also, the ghost of Pia de' Tolomei, a 13th-century Sienese noblewoman, hovers within the castle walls, making the place part of Italian literary history thanks to the famous passage from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The characteristic bell tower of the parish church of St. John the Baptist Is much more recent than the church itself in fact it is a renovation of a tower of the city wall carried out in the early 20th century to a design by Lorenzo Porciatti, in neo-Gothic style with references to Moorish architecture while the church was obtained in the 16th century from an arms depot we leave the castle of Castiglione della Pescaia through its double door Arranged at 90 degrees to render the besieging war machines useless from here on the new town begins the new part is full of places for the evening restaurants and bars And that's where most of the tourists are located only the most adventurous or those in search of peace and beauty climb the climbs of the old town I hope you enjoyed the video Till next time!

2024-06-23 09:18

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