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Inhabitants in 1991: 9.518
 The
municipal territory of Massa Marittima extends for 283,73 square kilometres
in a hilly zone at the southern extreme of the Metalliferous hills .City
Seat of diocese and capital of a small republic in the Medieval period,
it was Vicariate Seat under the Lorena. Within its borders there were
originally the communities of Follonica and Monterotondo Marittimo, detached
respectively in 1920 and 1961 to form autonomous municipalities.
Prehistoric finds confirm human presence in the territory of
Massa Marittima from the last palaeolithic phase in the bronze age;
the settlements consolidated in the iron age and continued their development
in the Etruscan and Roman eras. The oldest written documentation
relative to Massa Marittima goes back however to an act of sale in December
746, when the locality was taken into the diocese of Populonia, in
its turn included in the territory of the Dukes of Lucca. It was
this transfer of the Episcopal Seat, after the devastation of Populonia
by the Greek and Saracen pirates at the beginning of the IX century which
conferred to Massa a new economic and social importance and the dignity
of City. The temporary dominion of the Bishops over the diocese, its
outlines confirmed by Gregorio VII in 1074 and subjected to the metropolitan
jurisdiction of Pisa by Innocenzo II in 1133, was, among other things,
gravely limited, be it for the presence in the area of Lordly families
from Lucca, Volterra and Pisa, or for the pressure exercised by the municipal
of Pisa, who soon began to assert its political control over them. The
Episcopal authority prevailed however with greater vigour over the city
centre, of whom the Bishop remained temporary Lord for all intents and
purposes until, in the first decade of the XIII century, a diverse
assortment of residents and immigrants attracted by the mineral riches
determined the formation of the municipality. The predominance of the
new form of organisation of power was fairly rapid and was eased by the
submission of the city to Pisa, stipulated by the Bishop oppressed
by debts in 1216; less than ten years later in 1225, the Massa
municipality acquired full political autonomy.
 At
the same time there was a perceptible urban expansion and strengthening
of the fortifications (new wall belts in 1206, building of fortified houses
and towers, among which the tower of the Candlestick in 1228) whilst the
castles of the territory became progressively incorporated in the municipal
jurisdiction. By the middle of the century the traditional tie with Pisa
and the influence of the Aldobrandeschi Counts, concessionaries of Imperial
rights over Massa in the XII and XIII centuries, were substituted by new
alliances and treaties of “special friendship” (the first
in 1241) with the Siena republic. The political clash between the
Massa Ghibellini and Guelfi furthermore allowed the Siena municipality
to set themselves up as guarantor of the internal pacification
of the city: it was thus that in 1276 an ample alliance treaty was set
up in which it was established, among other things, that Massa should
be governed by Siena citizens for twenty years. Siena’s interest
was amply justified by the riches of the Massa mineral district
and was reconfirmed in 1307, with a new privilege alliance. Only in 1331,
when the supporters of Pisa regained the upper hand of the Massa municipal
government, did this allegiance suffer a brusque interruption. After
military hostilities with Siena, to which followed a mediation attempt
by the Fiorentini, a citizen disturbance promoted by Siena supporters
in September 1335, determined the definitive establishment of the political
dominion by Siena. The consolidation of the Siena authority however
coincided with the beginning of a long period of economic crisis.
In 1396 the mineral industry ceased all activity and in 1408 tax relief
measures for the Massa municipal acknowledged the demographic regression
of the city, reduced to almost 400 residents. A partial revival consolidated
towards the end of the XV century, was irreversibly compromised by new
disasters: the epidemics of 1522-23, the Spanish occupation in 1530,
the assaults and raids during the Siena war (1554-55). Also under
the Mediceo dominion, for the effect of the recurring Malaria the
decadence continued. Only in the last century with the land
reclaims of the Scarlino marshes, promoted by Grand Duke Leopoldo
II di Lorena, and with the reopening of the mineral excavations, did
a new prosperity phase begin. Massa is the birthplace of the family
Albizzeschi, San Bernardino da Siena (1380-1444). Prata and the castles
of Perolla and Tatti are also of historic interest. During the resistance
the Massa territory saw a strong partisan activity, and in June
1944 at Niccioleta, a village grown up around 1940 near the local pyrite
mine, eighty three miners were killed in the nazifascist reprisals.
Places to visit:
Palazzo Comunale, imposing Romanic
complex born by the fusion of the tower houses of the XIII and XIV
centuries.
Palazzo Pretorio, building in travertine stone
from around 1230, has the façade covered in numerous Podesta
coats of arms and by a basso-relievo representing the “Siena
Wolf” . Inside is the Seat of the Civic Archaeological Museum
with finds which range from the prehistoric to the Roman era.
Palazzo delle Armi, built in 1443 as arms deposit and Seat
of the Museum of Art and History of the Mines
Porta
alle Silici, from the XIV century unites the Massa wall belt with
that of Siena.
Cathedral di S. Cerbone, Grandiose Romanic-Gothic
building initiated around the middle of the XII century. The majestic
two colour façade was skilfully built to augment the prospective
effect of the Cathedral in respect to the irregular Medieval square
on which in faces. The three nave interior is supported by travertine
stone columns with finely decorated Corinthian capitals The Baptistery,
original in being excavated in a single enormous mass of travertine
stone and sculptured in beautiful relief. It houses innumerable works
of art. |
Historical info reproduced upon authorization
of Regione Toscana - Dipartimento della Presidenza E Affari Legislativi
e Giuridici
Picture by Sandro Santioli
Translated by Ann Mountford
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Gallery: Grosseto area
