Inhabitants in 1991: 8.953
The
Municipal territory of Cerreto Guidi extends for 49,33 square kilometres
in Valdarno Inferiore comprising part hill and part plains. Feudal
land, then Podesta Office, it became Seat of the community in
1774 and reached its present day size in the first half of the XIX
century, when a part of its territory was detached and annexed to
that of Vinci.
The oldest document which records Cerreto goes back to the year 780:
in this the Abbey of San Savino near Pisa had a donation of certain assets
in the Cerreto territory. Cerreto tied, as is testified in the town name,
to the Guidi Counts - is from 1086 the oldest testimony of the
tie between the feudal family and the town - but quite soon, in 1273,
the Guidi overloaded with incurred debts, ceded it for 8,000 florins
to the Fiorentina republic. From that moment on the history of the
town, and the surrounding territory saw continual passage from hand to
hand and revolts: in 1315 Cerreto rebelled against Firenze profiting
by the defeat of the Guelfo army by Uguccione della Faggiola; in 1326
it was the turn of Castruccio Castracani, who took over Cerreto;
in 1332 Giovanni di Boemia occupied it with the military, as did
Mastino della Scala in 1336. It was exactly to put an end to this
endemic weakness of a township that by now, for importance and population,
had assumed a notable size, that in the year of the last undertaking in
1336 the Firenze municipal decided that the village of Cerreto should
be "remade and walled" . For two centuries the tranquillity seemed
to have returned even if in 1538 Spanish troops were billeted in the town
without however causing damage of any kind. During the last war the town
suffered damage to person and possessions: Twenty or so inhabitants were
shot by the Nazis in the slaughter recorded as the slaughter of the
Padule di Fucecchio.
Places to visit: Villa Medicea, it was built
in 1565 by Cosimo I on the ruins of the antique castle, it was reached
via huge ramps (the Medicei bridges). It was later sold by the Grand
Duke Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena in 1781. Today it is the property of
the State. The interior of the villa holds a series of Medicei portraits
in various eras as well as other works of art. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford |