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Cetona

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Inhabitants in 1991: 3.028

The municipal territory of Cetona extends for 53,19 square kilometres in the Val di Chiana, on the eastern slopes of Monte Cetona. The community had its origins as a feudal centre.

In a territory inhabited in Etruscan and Roman times, the castle of Cetona was recorded for the first time at the beginning of the XIII century as feudal to the Ildebrandino Counts, even though it was already under the political jurisdiction of the municipality of Orvieto. Object of bitter and long contest between Siena and Orvieto, around 1260 Cetona was sold to the latter by the heirs of Count Ildebrandino and annexed to the Orvieto district. In the middle of the 1300s Orvieto saw its dominion over the territorial castles crumble under the hand of various patrician families who had gravitated into the orbit of the Perugia municipality and thus in the church’s State; a nephew of Pontiff Gregorio XI was invested over the dominion of Cetona (1367) and in 1375 transferred the possession to the Counts Monaldeschi di Cervara.

In 1418 Cetona was conquered by Braccio di Montone and sold to the republic of Siena, who after the occupation of the castle by Iacopo Piccinino (1455) re-enforced the fortifications in 1458; and Cretona remained loyal to Siena until the Medicea conquest (1556). From 1558-1596 it was conceded by Cosimo I in feudal as Marquisate to the Vitelli family and it was successively reintegrated into the Grand Duchy.

Places to visit:
Civic Museum for the Prehistory of Monte Cetona, organised with finds from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze age, coming from the excavations in the area.
Collegiate, erected in 1200s is abutted to the external perimeter of the walls of the fortress. The interior preserves 1400s frescoes.

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


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