Inhabitants in 1991: 7.218
The
municipal territory of Pelago extends for 54,78 square kilometres between
the slopes of the Apennines and those of Pratomagno and the Val di Sieve,
in an area of hills and mountains. Originally a feudal castle, the
municipality of Pelago reached its present day aspect in 1915 when
the districts of Rufina and Contea were detached from it and constituted
as autonomous municipality with the name of Rufina.
The oldest
documented mention of Pelago goes back to 1089. Its territory was
for a long time possessed by the Counts Guidi di Poppi, from whom,
so it is said, there had been many bequeaths donated to the advantage
of the Vallombrosa monks; on the contrary the castle, at least
from the XIII century was under the authority of the Cattani da Diacceto,
a family of minor nobility probably Guidi vassals, and until the
XV century on several occasions there arose disputes of ownership between
the Cattani, the Camaldoli monks, the Bishop of Fiesole and the Fiorentina
republic to whom the supremacy had been recognised since the middle
of the 1200s. To remedy the diatribe definitively Papa Eugenio IV in 1445
laid out a "brief" which confirmed the Cattani da Diacceto as proprietors
of the castle. Coming to the Fiorentino State at the beginning of
the modern era, Pelago was made capital of the community in 1808 by the
Napoleonic administration.
Places to visit: S. Clemente, church positioned
in the centre of the town, has internally an important triptych of
the 1400s. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of
Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e
Giuridici
Picture by Antonio Barletti
Translated by Ann Mountford
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