Inhabitants in 1991 : 2,223
The
Municipal territory of, Chiusi della Verna (called Chiusi del Casentino),
extends over an area of 102,32 square kilometres occupying both the eastern
and western spur of the Alpe di Catenaia between the Valdarno Casentinese
and the high Val Tiberina. It was originally a feudal centre, then
a Podesta office, it was named community in 1776 taking to itself
fourteen hamlets already dependent to it.
The first historical mention of Chiusi goes back to 967, when
Ottone I confirmed the best part of the Appennino Casentino as feudal
to this vassal Goffredo di Ildebrando comprising also the “comitatus
clusinus” (the committee of Chiusi) ; and it remained to the
descendants of Goffredo until 1324 when it was taken from them by the
arms of Guido Tarlati Bishop of Arezzo,
to pass therefore in 1328 to his brother of Pier Saccone. After a long
dispute (1360) the Tarlati were expelled and in 1384 Chiusi entered
definitively under the jurisdiction of the Fiorentina Republic who
made it Seat of Office of a Podesta in 1404 comprising Caprese, with the
ruling that the Podesta must reside alternatively for six months in the
Rocca di Chiusi and for six months in the little Pretorial palace of Caprese.
Of extreme religious and historical importance is the Santuario della
Verna, situated at 1,128 metres and which had origins in the donation
of the mountain towering over Chiusi by the Count Orlando to San Francesco
in 1213. Here the Saint hid with several companions dwelling in a
cave undergoing a hard regime of penitence and spiritual contemplation
and where he received the stigmate in September of 1224. In the
second half of that century the Cappella delle Stimmate was erected
and in the XIV-XV centuries the Chiesa Maggiore, meanwhile the site
became the destination of devote pilgrimages. Restored after grave
damage suffered during the second world war, the architectural complex,
which conserves on the whole a 1400s stamp, is composed of various
building belonging to different eras, some even of recent construction.
Places to visit
Santuario della Verna, see above. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford
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