|  Inhabitants in 1991: 12.513
 The
municipality extends for 83,13 square kilometres on the extreme offshoot
of the Metalliferous hill and on a strip of coastal plain. Designed by
Pisa in 1200 capital of a vast captaincy, it was, for a long period,
the principle centre of the High Maremma. Its present day aspect
goes back to 1949, when the district of San Vincenzo was detached
from it and constituted in autonomous municipality.
Land of the Etruscans, who were the first to take advantage of
the mineral resources, Campiglia was recorded in 1004 in
a document with which Count Gherardo II, of the family which was
later called the Gherardesca, founded and donated with assets the male
Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria di Serena in Val di Merse. In the
following century, although the great lineage of Counts continued to exercise
their Lordship together with diverse religious bodies, this authority
became limited with the birth of the local municipal institution
and even more so by the presence of the municipality of Pisa, since
1168, in the county in which Campigilia found itself. Annexed in 1406
to the Fiorentino State, it saw its important role of administrative
and military stronghold confirmed. As such it lived through various
warlike episodes, among which the most noted is perhaps the valiant
resistance to Alfonso di Napoli (1447-48). Gravely declined in modern
times, when the frequent epidemics and the recurring malaria brought
it to a total deterioration of the environmental conditions, Campiglia
returned to being the most important centre of the long tract of
coastal Toscano in the 1800s.
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford |
