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Inhabitants in 1991: 18.228
 The
municipal territory of Monsummano, in the Valdinievole, extends for 32,77
square kilometres in the plains and hills of Monte Albano to the marshes
of Fucecchio. Feudal centre, then Seat of Podesta office, it reached
its present day aspect in 1775 when the two centres of Monsummano
and Montevettolini, call the «Due Terre di Val di Nievole» (Two
lands of the Valley of Nievole) became united in a single community.
The ancient settlement, the castle was erected on the summit of the
hill where its suggestive ruins remain today, was until the beginning
of the XII century feudal to the Maona Counts and owned by the Lucca
Episcopate; in 1218 it was acquired by the municipality of Lucca
and remained under its dominion until 1314 when for a brief period it
was occupied by Firenze. Returning under the Lords of Lucca after the
Fiorentina defeat at the battle of Montecatini, on the death of Castruccio
Castracani (1328) Monsummano, together with the Valdinievole castles entered
into the orbit of the Fiorentino State, which in 1331 approved the
statutes and sent them a Podesta. In 1408 the municipality was put
under the Podesta office of Montevettolini, while from 1430 the inhabitants
depended on the Podesta of Buggiano and thus remained in the Mediceo State.
In the second half of the 1500s the life of the castle was transferred
to the town below the slopes but the true development of the village,
inhabited by shepherds and farm workers on the edge of the marshes, came
about in the 1600s around the church erected to celebrate the phenomena
destined to influence the economic activity of the location: the emergence
of the thermal waters which became well know and well frequented in
the 1800s. During the war of Liberation, on 23 August 1944, the Fucecchio
mashes, at Cintolese, a district of Monsummano, the German troops massacred
more than two hundred victims. It is the birth place of the poet Giuseppe
Giusti (1809-1850).
Places to visit:
Santuario di Fontenuova, erected
in 1605 in the main square. It is surrounded on three sides by a large
frescoed portico. The interior holds many works of art. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford |
