VOLTERRA The earliest references to the city date to Villanovan times, that is to the iron age (9th-7th cent. B.C.). As Velathri, it was for a long time one of the most powerful lucumonies in Etruria. It was so important that in the 3rd century B.C. it had around 25,000 inhabitants and was the last lucumony to fall to the Romans after a siege that lasted two years (81-80 B.C.). The city was quite powerful between the 12th and 14th centuries when it often found itself fighting Pisa, Florence, Siena and San Gimignano for a question of territory and finally fell to the Florentines in 1361.
More Info... |
The architecture of San Gimignano makes this small city, so concentrated and noble, unique with the geometric pattern of the towers rising above the town. It was al-ready known in Etruscan and Roman times. During the Middle Ages its importance grew thanks to the presence of the Via Francigena, the most important route at the time which connected Italy to all of Europe. San Gimig-nano almost always sided with Florence, but was unable to expand its power or its boundaries further because ge-ographically it was inhibited by nearby Florence and Siena. The two urban spaces with the greatest wealth, artistical-ly speaking, are the Piazza della Cisterna and the Piazza Duomo.
More Info... |
