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Castellina in Chianti

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Inhabitants in 1991: 2.508

The municipal territory of Castellina extends for 99,45 square kilometres on the hills which dominate the three valleys of the Elsa, the Arbia and the Pesa. Originally a Lordly centre it became capital of community in 1774 following the Leopoldina reform, with a territory almost identical to the “terziere” (Thirds) of the Chianti League which had for centuries been the chief.
The presence of the Etruscan underground vault at Montecalvario, near to the town of Castellina, proves that the place was populated from the VII century B.C.; the first documented news of the centre was from the beginning of the XIII century when the nobles of the Castel of Trebbio were its Lords (from where comes the name of Castellina dei Trebbiesi); after their submission to Firenze in 1193, Castellina passed under the direct dominion of the Toscano capital.

With the Fiorentina conquest of all the Chianti region and the institution of the same name league in the middle of the 1200s, Castellina was put at the head of one of the three “terzieri” into which the League was subdivided administratively, becoming from then on, for its strategic position, a point of referral for Firenze in her struggle against Siena. Destroyed in 1397 by the army of Alberico da Barbiano in the pay of the Visconti allied to Siena, Castellina was reconstructed and fortified in the first decades of the 1400s. Though remaining loyal to Firenze, new sieges and devastation had to be suffered in the course of the XV century by the Aragonese army and also for a short lived conquest by Siena (from 1478 to 1483) until the termination of the long war between Siena and Firenze in 1554 with the inclusion of all the Siena territory in the Mediceo State.

Places to visit:
Tumulo di Montecalvario, a little way out of the town, can be found this structure formed by four tombs from VII-VI century B.C.

Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Picture by Sandro Santioli
Translated by Ann Mountford


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