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Inhabitants in 1991: 28.188
 Situated
between the Arno and the Serchio, the municipal territory extends for
92,22 square kilometres at the feet and on the south western slopes of
Monte Pisano reaching to the sea. Bagni di San Giuliano had already
become autonomous community in 1776 thanks to the aggregation of 31
small territories from the Podesta office of Ripafratta and it changed
its name in 1935.
Probably inhabited from the Roman era for the marble
and stone excavations, used later for the construction of the Pisa
buildings, and later still for the thermal waters mentioned by
Plinio, in the Medieval San Giuliano was a village which had grown around
a church in the Lucca Diocese and documented as being from 772. In
the XII century it was fortified with walls and keeps and was part of
the Pisano county. Of notable importance as obligatory route on the
road to Lucca, it was the theatre of repeated armed encounters
between the internal republic and Pisa: the two cities contested possession
until the peace of Montopoli, which sanctioned the restitution to Pisa,
after the razing of the towers in 1397. The importance of the baths,
which tradition has as being instigated by Matilde di Canossa,
is attested in a document of the Pisa municipal from 1161, regarding the
obligation of the Podesta to take care of the Bagni di Monte Pisano, Restored
more than once, enlarged and surrounded by walls in the XIV century, the
baths were destroyed in 1406 by the Fiorentini; rebuilt in 1597 by
Grand Duke Ferdinando I and newly restored in 1684, the baths were
sold by Cosimo III to the Pia Casa della Misericordia di Pisa, who constructed
a building with lodgings. During the decadence of the Grand Duchy, it
was forgotten, but rediscovered in 1742 by Emperor Francesco I who came
to the Toscana throne. Stronghold of the republican party, San Giuliano
posed a strong resistance to the penetration of Fascism. During the second
world war, despite the fact that Monte Pisano offered scarce possibility
for guerrilla activity, it was an important centre of partisan activity
intensified in 1944 and culminating in a violent armed encounter with
the German military command stationed in Agnano, who performed various
reprisals in subsequence. It was from its mountains that on 2 September
1944 that partisan formations descended and were the first to enter Pisa
evacuated by the Germans.
Places to visit:
Palazzo delle Terme, 1700s, placed in the centre of the town,
it is the work of Ignazio Pellegrini. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford |
