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 Inhabitants in 1991: 9.432
 The
municipal territory of Montespertoli extends for 125,02 square kilometres
in the hilly zone between the Val di Pesa and the Val d'Elsa. Free
municipality it became Podesta Office in XVI century, reaching its present
day extension in 1839.
The first documents in which the place name of the capital is
recorded are from XI century, but it had no significant importance
until towards the XV century, above all in relation to the other localities
which today make up part of its territory. The scarce surviving public
documentation qualified it as a free community, in which the
relatively extensive power and possessions were held by the Abbey di
Passignano, the Alberti Counts and the family of minor country nobility
the da Montespertoli.
 There is
no note of its annexation to the Fiorentino county (probably in
the course of the second half of the XII century) while it is presumed
that the reason for its subsequent development was perhaps the
transformation of the market conceded by Firenze to San Piero in
1465, which had been traditionally held for centuries at Montespertoli,
also in virtue of the fact that the village was placed along the Volterrana
road, then a road of quite heavy traffic. This determined the commercial
and demographic growth of the place and in the XVI century the Podesta,
who until then had had Seat at San Piero in Mercato , transferred themselves
to Montespertoli. Among the other localities of historic importance making
up part of the municipal, Lucardo must be recalled, already important
in the Longobarda and Carolingian era and coming under the jurisdiction
of Firenze in 1203, and the imposing castles of Poppiano
and Montegufoni belonging respectively to the families of the Guicciardini
and the Acciaioli.
Places to visit:
The above mentioned castles. |
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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Gallery: Chianti
