Montescudaio

The name comes from Latin Montescudaio Mons Scutarius or Scutaris Mons, but the settlement is very oldest and dates back at Villanova, in the early stages of the formation of Etruscan civilization. In a tomb near the village was found an urn cineraria ninth or tenth century BC That for its valuable and unique decoration with figures on the plastic cover is a unique and very important part of that. Situated along with other furnishings, at the Archaeological Museum of Florence.
The first historical documents you have around Mille, when the "castle", ie the country fortified and surrounded by walls, belonged to the accounts della Gherardesca. At that time the accounts settled permanently in Montescudaio, where they built a building or a fortress and from the fourteenth century, gave rise to a branch of the family, which took its name from the village: Montescudaio accounts. Age, it seems, a race particularly swagger and irruenta, a descendant of the John Della Gherardesca that for its lack of physical presence was called "Bacarozzo". As early as 1305, the children were reported Bacarozzo because they had made raids and theft of livestock in Volterra. In 1345 the Montescudaio, allied with the Republic of Pisa and it appointed vicars in Maremma, were protagonists of a sensational episode of treason with counterfeit letters led the castles of their jurisdiction, Montescudaio, Guardistallo, Bibbona, Rosignano, Vada and a Fauglia rebel against Pisa. Obviously the revolt shows why was not long after the Montescudaio were again accepted in Pisa, where later had a secondary role in the struggle between factions for power in the city. In 1395-96 it rivoltarono again against the Republic making raids on the territory of Pisa, spalleggiati hours from Florence.
In 1406 when Pisa with the county was sold to Florence, the accounts were quick to take credit in this city and were reappointed vicars in Maremma. But the inhabitants of Montescudaio managed on this occasion to get rid of them, voluntarily subjecting themselves to the Florentine Republic from which they had permission to establish joint. In January 1406, in fact, a delegation of four people of Montescudaio, along with another Guardistallo, departed for Florence to treat submission. Representatives not only obtained permission to establish joint and prepare its statutes, but also out of the accounts, that the ban was imposed to enter the castle of Montescudaio.
The territory of the Municipality consisted of small private property and large municipal areas - mostly pastures and forests - which were used collectively. The inhabitants of Montescudaio could to graze the beasts and cut wood for their own use upon payment of an amount determined by statutes and by camarlengo paid to the community. Hunting and fishing were free.
The statutes - which valevano both Montescudaio that Guardistallo and from 1414 to Casale Marittimo - regolavano elections consuls (the highest government office, whose names were extracted from a bag) and councillors, elected by voice. The statute defined the various municipal offices and established penalties and fines, which, in addition to royalties on pastures, constituted one of the highest revenue of the municipality. It was fined every type of offense: playing the ball in the square, blaspheme, lordura do in the village, send animals grazing outside the times and the boundaries established, but could also be fined a worker, for example, had to rent a land Municipal and worked little or evil.
The statutes also regolavano the lives of villagers during the seasons:
In March had an obligation to make the garden from May "roads" had to deal with the roads in September could to hire guards to watch municipal vineyards and fig. Si stabiliva inoltre il numero di bestie che ogni famiglia poteva mandare sul pascolo, si regolava la macellazione e la vendita delle carni e si decretava che le stoppie e le ghiande fossero riservate ai maiali, gli animali più importanti per l’alimentazione familiare che potevano anche circulate freely in the country.
With regard to rules of hygiene, not watering the animals were in the source as men and the people had an obligation to sweep the front door at home, especially on Sundays. When dirty water were paid on the street should warn in advance and in particular at night you had to shout three times water before overturning something on paved.
The community suffered several invasions and devastation. In 1447 he was assailed and plundered by the troops of Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples, at war with Florence. The invasion, among other things, was made possible by another betrayal of accounts Montescudaio who had allied with the Aragon thus facilitating the fall of castles Maremma. In 1478 Montescudaio subdued by the invasion of Ferdinand of Aragon, the son of Alfunso, and the later, it was ransacked by the same troops Florentine, lots for riconquistarlo. Following negotiations, the residents at least managed to avoid a fire in the castle.
The era of the Commune ended in 1648, when the Medici made the whole area a feud that was granted to Marquis Ridolfi of Florence and they still reconfirmed by Lorraine in 1738. The land then returned to the property "Mr master", hunting and fishing were again the feudal privileges. The marquis the Ridolfi forbade with a decree of 1778 in all its territory, provoking a heated protest of the population.
Another part of the woods was bound by the Regie Ferriere Magona Cecina plant for melting and processing of iron, which had the exclusive right of exploitation of the surrounding woods for wood supplies needed to conduct ovens.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were therefore very difficult for people of Montescudaio. The feuds were abolished by Act of 1749, introduced by Lorraine, and from 1770 began to Montescudaio sales and rental concessions of land that is Grand-Ducal municipal agrarian reform in the sphere of the Grand Peter Leopold. The proposed reform is a new and more widespread distribution of lands to promote a more rational cultivation and intensive, helped also by new farming techniques. Yes indeed reached this, but not for the benefit of the people of the castle, but by creating a new class of landowners, who were working in the fields day or sharecropping. The inhabitants of Montescudaio had tried to oppose the privatization of municipal land by sending a petition to provveditore of Pisa, in which they expressed their concern that the land could end up in the hands of a few owners who could ask excessive payments for grazing, cultivation or wood deny it altogether. To the people would have been well placed "hook throat." The petition was rejected as groundless, but in reality more than half of municipal lands Montescudaio was assigned to only two owners, Guerrini of Montescudaio and Vincenzo Clerks of Casale.
In 1846 the agglomeration of the oldest houses of the castle was destroyed by a violent earthquake. While the village, which extended south to the valley, saved to a large extent, on top all the houses collapsed and the church of Santa Maria, just enlarged and embellished, it was ruined. Eight people died under the rubble.
The Grand in his visit to the areas devastated by the earthquake stopped Montescudaio also allocating funds for reconstruction.
Another earthquake struck the town in 1871 and completely destroyed what had remained standing even partially, as the leftovers of the old palace Montescudaio.
In the there was a considerable population growth, even though the economic situation remained difficult (in 1784, there were 434 inhabitants, in 1825, 707, in 1841, 1,008 in 1901, 1,931). After the Unity of italy taxes were very cumbersome, low income and low revenue of the municipality. The number of "miserable" increased significantly. It recorded movements between countries of the workforce, looking for work, even seasonal. The activity was mainly in agricultural products were key, as for centuries, the oil and wine. At the beginning of the twentieth century the wine was an important product in the provincial trade.
Montescudaio has reached the maximum of its inhabitants in 1927 with 2,880 units. After the Second World War occurred on demographic collapse due to emigration to the new industrial and commercial centres along the coast, and Cecina Rosignano (Montescudaio in 1951 had 2,010 inhabitants, while in 1967, only 1,298). The city has managed to offset the loss with the new site of Fiorino, a town on the border with Cecina, and the nearby industrial zone of Poggio Gagliardo. So the last census there was even a slight increase in the number of population. There remains the problem of an ageing population: 40% of residents is older than 60 years.
In addition to craft and industrial Poggio Gagliardo, Montescudaio has registered a significant development in the field of tourism with new residential complexes along the road to Cecina.
From 19 years Montescudaio produces a DOC wine, red and white, which can be purchased in ten farms that form the consortium of Montescudaio Doc wine (made from Sangiovese grapes from the vines, Trebbiano, Malvasia, red and Canaiolo Ciliegino for red; Trebbiano, Malvasia, Vermentino and Canaiolo white for white. production is 6,000 hectolitres a year.

From Guide Val di Cecina, edited by Susanne Mordhorst, New Image Publishing