San Gimignano rises with its towers, on a hill (334m high) dominating the Val d'Elsa. Seat of a small Etruscan village of the Hellenistic period (third-second century BC.) Began on its history around the tenth century taking its name from the Holy Bishop of Modena, San Gimignano, which would have saved the village from the barbarian hordes. Developed greatly during the Middle Ages by the Via Francigena that crossed it. So much so that San Gimignano the flourishing of works of art to adorn the churches and convents. In 1199 it became a free municipality and fought against the Bishops of Volterra and the surrounding municipalities, power struggles it eventually divided into two factions following the Ardinghelli (Guelphs) and the Salvucci family (Ghibellines). The eight maggio 1300 Dante Alighieri, ambaciatore of the Guelph League in Tuscany. The terrible plague of 1348 and the subsequent depopulation threw San Gimignano in a serious crisis. The town had therefore submit to Florence. Degradation and subsequent abandonment of the centuries it came out only when he began to rediscover the beauty of the city, its cultural importance el'originaria agricultural identity. |
