Inhabitants in 1991: 12.643
Monte
Argentario extends for 60,29 square kilometres on the same name promontory,
at the southern extreme of the Toscana Maremma. Under the Lords of
the Abbey of the Tre Fontane in the Medieval, it was constituted in 1843
with the detachment of the promontory from the territory of the community
of Orbetello, The Communal Seat is a Porto Santo Stefano.
Owned in Roman times by the Domizia family, Monte Argentario
cited in a certificate of Carlo Magno dated 805, but clearly false,
already in the IX century it was probably part of the patrimony of
the Roman Abbey of Sant’Abastasio alle Tre Fontane. Between
the XII and XIII centuries it was put into the Aldobrandesco dominion
and was assigned, with the act of division of the county in 1216, to the
Sovana branch of the Aldobrandeschi. From them it passed by succession
to the Orsini, who kept it for the whole of the 1300s. Later conquered
by the Siena republic, it was the object of repeated concessions:
in 1441 to the Venetian Angelo Morosini and in 1460 to a Mercantile company
from Siena. Replaced, in 1474 under the direct administration of the republic
it was again conceded at the end of the century to the Ospedale di Santa
Maria della Scala and in 1507 to Pandolfo Petrucci, who from the end of
the 1400s constituted a Lordly dominion between Albegna and Argentario.
From 1557 it became part of the Presidi State dependent on Spain,
following its subsequent destiny : from 1708 it passed to the Austrians,
in 1736 it fell under the dominion of the Borboni of Napoli,
from 1808 to 1814 it was incorporated in the Napoleonic realm of Etruria
and lastly, in 1815, became part of the Grand Duchy of Toscana.
The
development of Porto Santo Stefano, of probable Roman origin, started
after the constitution of the Presidi State and received a notable thrust
in the first years of the 1600s by the initiative of the Spanish governor
Nuflo Orejòn. During the second world war in suffered enormous
damage because of the numerous aerial and naval bombardments. Porto
Ercole however boasts extremely remote origins and was the Roman Portus
Erculis. Its history traces the events of the territory until the
beginning of the 1500s when it was conceded to Agostino Chigi, in the
same period that the Lordship of Pandolfo Petrucci was affirmed over Argentario.
In 1527 it was occupied together with Orbetello and Talamone by
the Papal Fleet commanded by Andrea Doria, who kept possession until 1530.
On 10 June 1555 it was overcome by the forces of Cosimo I dei Medici.
It was placed in the Presidi State and lost importance in front of development
of Porto Santo Stefano.
Historical info reproduced upon authorization
of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi
e Giuridici
Picture by Sandro Santioli
Translated by Ann Mountford
|