Inhabitants
in 1991: 1.391
The
municipal territory is situated on a hill sloping towards the right bank
of the river Milia in Val di Cornia. It has a surface of 102,51 square
kilometres. It rose as autonomous community in 1961 separating
itself from Massa Marittima.
The castle of Monterotondo seems to have been the possession and the
residence of the Alberti Counts since the XII century, as is attested
in a privilege conceded in 1163 by Federico I Barbarossa. In 1209 Count
Rainaldo inherited the territory in which the castle was situated
and put it under the protection of Massa Marittima, who entered
into direct ownership between 1261 and 1263 thanks to successive acts
of sale by the descendents of Rainaldo. In 1335 it was absorbed –
with all of Massa – by the Siena republic, who in 1399 had the
fortress reconstructed enlarging the fortification and which in the XV
century maintain a Vicar. In 1554, after a long resistance to the
attack of the Austro Hispanic Medicee troops, who finally won it and
destroyed it they subjected themselves to the Lords dei Medici following
from that moment the Sequence of Firenze and the Grand Duchy. Monterotondo
is the birthplace of the writer and poet Renato Fucini (1843-1921).
Historical info reproduced upon authorization of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi e Giuridici
Translated by Ann Mountford |