|
 |
|
| Historical news on the Valdichiana |
|
EARLY HUMAN SETTLEMENTS |
| Archaeological finds from prehistoric and proto-historic times are evidence of the antiquity of human settlement in the area of the Val di Chiana. Such finds include the “skull of Olmo”, found in 1863 in the namesake village of the province of Arezzo, consisting in a skullcap belonging to a homo sapiens from the middle Pleistocene as well as remains of tools and implements from the Mesolithic age found in the Arezzo area by streams Castro and Vingone. |
THE ETRUSCAN AGES |
| After a significant demographic increase in the Villanovian period a completely new scenario opened for the valley as the Etruscans settled in. The Val di Chiana thrived thanks to new effective agricultural techniques imported by the Etruscans and thanks to renewed trades with neighbouring regions. The influence of the “Lucumonie” (city states) of Arezzo, Cortona and Chiusi set the stage for the systematic cultivation of cereals, and more in particular spelt (one of the favourites of Etruscans) in all of the lands of the valley. The considerable water flow rate of the Clanis also allowed Etruscans to navigate down the river with small vessels to trade food and artefacts and for transport purposes. Etruscans set up a number of small ports in sites touched by the Clanis including Brolio, now a small village in the municipality of Castiglion Fiorentino and back then a thriving Etruscan town: in 1863 several Etruscan votive and non-votive bronzes dating back to periods ranging from the 7th and the 5th century B.C. were found in the area. The splendour and the significance of Etruscan Val di Chiana are attested to by countless archaeological finds coming from the different municipalities of the valley and in particular the Cortona and Chiusi area. |
THE ROMAN DOMINATION |
The defeat of Veio by the Romans and the progressive occupation of Etruria by the Roman Republic culminating in the Etruscan defeat in Sentino (295 B.C.) allowed Romans to gain a firm grasp on the Val di Chiana. Roman presence in the valley is documented as early as the 2nd-1st century B.C. based on a number of finds from that period. A fine example of a well-preserved Roman amphitheatre may be seen in Arezzo whilst a votive putto and a large clay shingle bearing the “stylized fish”, a sign used by the early adherents of the Christian cult in Italy as an identification mark were unearthed in Brolio.
Dating back to the same period the catacombs of Santa Caterina and Santa Mustiola (both 3rd century A.C.) in Chiusi both showing how rapidly Christianity spread in the valley (the city of Chiusi was an episcopal seat as early as in the 3rd century A.C.). Local place-names also attest to their Roman origin: take the village of Castrocello (in the municipality of Castiglion Fiorentino), for example, whose name clearly comes from Latin castrum and bears testimony to the ancient presence of a Roman camp in the area as well as the towns of Lucignano (whose name is likely to be derived from Latin castrum Lucinianum, a camp named after consul Lucio Licinio Lucullo that occupied the area in the 1st century B.C. during the war between Silla and Gneo Papirio Carbone) and Marciano dellla Chiana (name probably deriving from the gens Marcia, a local noble family that owned a fundus in the area). |
THE MEDIEVAL AGES AND THE FORMATION OF THE SWAMP |
Several written documents from the middle-ages speak of the Val di Chiana as an unhealthy region. We should, first of all, make it clear that the alleged massive migration (if any) of people from the plains to local hill-towns did not happen before the 11th century. Several documents attest (especially Episcopal documents), in fact, to the presence of countless parishes dotting the valley. We should also mention that Charles the Great, having to go in the winter of 786 from Rome to Florence, travelled down the Via Cassia and crossed the Val di Chiana.
We may, therefore, assume that the depopulation of the valley took place after the year 1000 when the territory had become so uninhabitable that the settlement of people and the cultivation were no longer possible. The size of the swampland rapidly escalated and a Leonardo Da Vinci’s map drawn in the late 15th century shows us the central part of the valley being covered by submerged land surrounded by hills where human settlements were located.
The words of Dante in verses 46-47 of the 29th Canto of the Inferno will long remain famous: “Qual dolor fora, se de li spedali / di Valdichiana tra 'l luglio e 'l settembre” (Such pain there was, as there would be, if the diseases in the hospitals of Valdichiana, Maremma and Sardinia, between July and September, were all rife in one ditch…). And the Poet remembers the stagnant waters of the Chiana in verse 23 of the 13th Canto of the Paradiso as he describes: …poi ch' è tanto di là da nostra usanza, quanto di là dal mover della Chiana si move il ciel che tutti li altri avanza… (Because it is as much beyond our wont, As swifter than the motion of the Chiana Moveth the heaven that all the rest outspeeds).
On the contrary, however, all centres established in Etruscan, Roman and Longobard ages grew to be very important, especially in strategic terms, within an area of crucial interest for the powerful cities of Florence, Arezzo, Siena and Perugia. The conquering of Arezzo by Florence and the submission of Perugia to the Papal States left only the city of the Lily and its fierce enemy Siena to contend for the area. A turning-point was reached in 1544 when the Senese (that already controlled all areas today included in the Senese Val di Chiana plus the stronghold of Lucignano), led by Florence-born (but enemy of Cosimo 1st de’ Medici) , Piero Strrozzi, burst into the valley, destroyed Foiano and occupied Castiglion Fiorentino and Marciano. As a reple Florentines, led by the marquis of Marignano known as the Medichiano, stormed Marciano and started from there their victorious counteroffensive that culminated in the battle of Scannagallo or Marciano (August 2 1554). From then on the Val di Chiana ultimately came under the rule of Florence first under the Medici and later under the Lorraine and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. |
| THE FLORENTINE DOMINATION AND THE RECLAMATION |
Well aware of the enormous potentials of the Val di Chiana the Florentine Government long tried to reclaim the swampland and entrusted with the task some of the most notable engineers of the time such as Galileo Galilei, Evangelista Torricelli and Vincenzo Viviani; efforts failed though to achieve permanent improvement
and only involved considerable costs. Such plans shared one common feature as they all attempted to defy the laws of nature trying to prevent the normal outflow of waters. The above engineers all had to opt for this solution in consideration of the prohibition by the Florentine Government to let waters from the Chiana flow out into river Arno as this was feared to be likely to cause a wave that would flood the city. It took an engineer of exceptional ability such as count Vittorio Fossombroni to prove the falsity of such a hypothesis. Fossombroni entrusted with the resumption of work in the valley by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo the 1st of Lorraine 1788 devised a simple and yet effective system capable of achieving excellent results: the “reclamation through artificial aggradation”. |
THE VALDICHIANA FROM THE AGE OF NAPOLEON TO THE UNITY OF ITALY |
Napoleon’s Italian campaign in 1796 resulted in the French occupying pre-union states, Grand Duchy of Tuscany included. At the time reclamation works were carried out feverishly in the Valdichiana which the French did not oppose to.
With the Restoration the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was reconstituted and reclamation works were completed. The quality of life progressively improved for the inhabitants of the Valdichiana that in 1860 participated in as a body the plebiscite through which in 1860 Tuscany was first annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia and later to the Kingdom of Italy. |
THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND WORLD WAR II |
The years following the Unity of Italy saw further improvement in the quality of life of the inhabitants of the Chiana. The now fertile land was intensively cultivated or devoted to the breeding of cattle by sharecroppers. Framers swarmed in from the neighbouring villages and the valley was repopulated over few decades.
The valley was, nevertheless, ravaged by the passing of the war front during World War II and countless civilian casualties added to the list of soldiers coming from different towns of the valley fallen in the battles fought by Italian divisions and foreign soldiers fallen in gunfire between the Germans and the Allied forces ( an English military cemetery may visited to this day in Foiano della Chiana).
At the end of the war almost all villages and towns in the valley suffered massive depopulation that only ended with the economic boom of the 60s. In following years the valley went through a spell of intensive demographic increase. |
| |
|
|
|
|
