Castellina Marittima

The first historical evidence of Castellina starting with a household Etruscan place on the hill of Salivolpi currently be seen where an artesian well and the remains of walls dell'insediamento. The tumulus near Mount Calvary with four graves chamber prepared to cross according to the cardinal points, endorse the idea of the site in centuries BC VI and VII .
Of relevant entities of the necropolis Poggino Fonterutoli reported in the area of the light from a few years from the local Archaeological Group. The village of Castellina, in the current lease, likely Roman origins, but the traces are lost in the centuries until Corsican strategic importance - military during the Middle Ages had. The story speaks of Castellina of Trebbiesi century, the name given by the nobles of the Trebbio consorteria of Guidi, owners of a castle near labile whose remains are visible from Badiola. In the twelfth century becomes an important Florentine military garrison located on the border between the states of Florence and Siena. The main centre of the 'old League of Radda in Chianti with Gaiole in the thirteenth century, subsequently, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Castellina is the scene of raids and looting by the state Siena. These events forced the Florentines to put in place continue restructuring and reinforcement of walls entrusted the direction of a famous architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi.
In 1478, while Florence is at war because of the Pazzi conspiracy, Castellina is sent Giuliano da Sangallo to strengthen again the defence structures: this episode is a comprehensive chronicle the "Screw" Vasari. Baldassar Castiglione in his "Cortegiano" describes instead a forty day siege by the Duke of Calabria, opponent Medici, where they were used as artiglieriedell'epoca bombarde, catapults and bullets "medicated" capable of causing epidemics and plagues. After the war Florentine Castellina back to the Medici in 1483. In the sixteenth century the country lost its strategic importance. The war between Florence and Siena ended and the unification of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Cosimo I de 'Medici transforms the old military outpost in rural centre structured along a sharecropping farm. In 1865 came the town of Castellina and its headquarters is moved in 1927 in the restored medieval fortress of Piazza del Comune. The Second World War saw the country theatre passage of the front. The bombing destroyed the ancient port Fiorentina at North Street and the adjacent Ferruccio Parish Church is seriously damaged, the facade and tower are modified and rebuilt in its present form at the end of the conflict.