| 
Inhabitants in 1991: 7.559
 The
municipal territory of Buggiano, positioned between the plains and the
hills, almost at the centre of the Valdenievole, with a point leaning
towards the Cozzile mountains and the extreme at the Fucecchio marsh lands,
extends for 16.12 square kilometres. The present day aspect has origins
from the territory of the ancient Medieval Podesta office with the
modifications brought about by the Leopoldini regulations in 1775, when
the municipal Seat was moved from high Buggiano to the lower Borgo a Buggiano.
In 1883 the district of Ponte Buggianese was detached from it to form
an autonomous municipality.
The history of the hamlet – of which the oldest news goes back
to the start of the XII century, when it began to develop as an autonomous
centre on the land which had recently been drained from the marshes –
is linked to that of the overlooking castle of High Buggiano, possibly
of Roman origin, certainly in favour during the Longobardo era,
it was then feudal to the Maona Counts from the X century, and finally
documented as municipality in 1191.
Destroyed in 1128 by Lucca and in 1135 rebuilt thanks to the donation
by the same Lucca Bishop, it remained under the dominion of Lucca until
the start of the 1300; then the expansionistic aims of the Fiorentini
were directed towards the Valdinievole and all those communities suffered
a series of surprise attacks and many warlike ups and downs, until the
definitive annexation to the Fiorentino State in 1339, when, with
the Peace of Venezia, Mastino della Scala pledged to deliver the Valdinievole
centres which he occupied to Firenze: on that occasion forty Buggianesi
families faithful to the Ghibellina were exiled and took Lucca citizenship.
In 1430 at the end of the administrative reorganisation of the Valdenievole
undertaken by the dominant Firenze in twenty years, Buggiano ended
up as Seat of a vast Podesta office which included the municipalities
of Massa e Cozzile, Montecatini, Montevottolini, Monsummano and Uzzano.
In another war episode, Buggiano suffered gravely in 1496 because of
the Venetian troops, who at war against Firenze sacked and set fire
to both the Hamlet and the Castle and also Stignano. On its plains were
fought pitched battles: in 1205 between the people and the Nobles of Lucca
and in 1315 the most celebrated battle, the so called battle of
Montecatini, between the Toscani Ghibellini led by Uguccione della
Faggiola and the Firenze Guelfi, who were bitterly defeated. In the
district of Stignano the humanist Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406)
was born, he was Chancellor of the Fiorentina republic.
Places to visit:
Palazzo Carozzi Sannini, built
in the seventeen hundreds Seat of the municipal Library.
Basilica
del SS. Crocifisso, built between the XIII and XIV centuries it
was restructured in 1771. The interior is Baroque style and there
are precious works of art. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford |
