| 
Inhabitants in 1991: 7.640
 The
municipal territory of Sovicille extends for 143,76 square kilometres
between the Valle del Merse and the eastern spur of the Sienahills. Free
municipality then Vicariate Seat.
The Sovicille (Sufficillum) castle on the border between the Siena Diocese
and that of Volterra, is recorded, from 1004 until the middle of the
XII century, as among the possession of the Abbey of Serena, while
at the end of the XII century it resulted as being directly among the
assets of the Siena Episcopate. Towards 1240 Sovicille was however organised
in municipality with its own statutes and under the jurisdiction of
the Siena republic; It became from 1251 to 1274 Lordship of certain
nobles of the area, in 1293 there was a new drafting of the municipal
statutes; attacked in 1313 by the Imperial troops of Arrigo VII
and again in 1333 by the Pisa army, in the middle of the 1300s Sovicille
and the surrounding territory seemed in grave decline, brought
about also by the disruption of the water system in the plain. First in
1356 and again in 1391 (after it had been restored in 1365) the castle
was attacked in vain by Firenze at war with Siena; new attacks (after
new reconstructions) were suffered in XV century until the devastation
in the war for the conquest of Siena in the middle of the 1500s, during
which near Sovicille a contingent of the Mediceo army was defeated by
Bentivoglio, but shortly after, in revenge, the town was partly devastated.
Places to visit:
S. Lorenzo, Medieval parish church with a bell tower adapted
from an ancient tower. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford |
www.terraditoscana.com
