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Towns of the area

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Castiglione d’Orcia

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Inhabitants in 1991: 2.840

The municipal territory of Castiglione d’Orcia extends for 141,84 square kilometres in the Val d’Orcia, on the north eastern slopes of Monte Amiata. It was originally a feudal centre; then Vicariate Seat and was raised to community in 1777 with the Leopoldina administrative reforms; it reached its present day aspect in 1867 with the aggregation of the districts of Campiglia d’Orcia, Bagni di San Filippo and Caselle del Vivo, taken from the municipality of Abbadia San Salvatore.
Known at the beginning of the XI century with the name of Petra, Castiglione (named thus at least from 1094), it was feudal to the Aldobrandeschi Counts, a member of these in 1154 transferred part of his rights on the castle to the Monks of the Abbey of San Salvatore of Monte Amiata. In the middle of the 1200s Count Aldobrandino recognised the sovereignty of Siena over Castiglione, which at the beginning of the 1300s passed entirely under its jurisdiction thanks to an act of renunciation by the Aldobrandeschi (paid for by Siena at a high price) and accepted a communal vicar. The dominion of the castle was, during the years, several times ceded by Siena to the financial oligarchy families, as guarantee for the loans conceded to the government; thus first the Lordship of the Piccolomini was affirmed then from 1368 that of the Salimbeni who made Castiglione one of their bases for the rebellion against the Siena republic until their subjugation in 1418. It passed with all the Siena territory under the Fiorentino dominion in the middle of the XVI century, in 1605 it was given in feudal with the title f Marquisate to the Noble Bolognese Family Riario by Cosimo II. The municipality is the birth place of the painter Lorenzo di Pietro called il Vecchietta (c.1412.1480)

Places to visit:
Ss. Stefano e Degna, Medieval parish church..

Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford


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