HISTORY OF PIOMBINO

OLD TIMES AND MIDDLE AGES

Piombino placed on the south of the homonymous promontory, is a sea-town with classical and medieval origins coming from Populonia, an important Etruscan center for metallurgy and from the Maritime Republic of Pisa. Since the first human traces in the 11th century, its particular geographic position was important for its history and development till today as early Pisa was interested in its territory; in 1162 a “Breve Imperiale” ratified a first form of control of Piombino even though it succeeded in creating its own Commune and developing laws and commercial trafic of iron coming from the Isle of Elba, wheat from the Maremma plane and salt coming from the near lands. Between the end of the 12th century and the first half of the 13th Piombino became the second most important harbour of the Maritime Republic.

THE CREATION OF THE STATE

Owing to the increasing crisis and the decline of Pisa, Piombino gained a politic and economic indipendence firstly in the 14th century when in 1399 Gherardo started the Appiani family’s domination and the creation of a state; it went on for more than 4 centuries (the only case in the Italian history): in 1507 it became a “Signoria”, in 1509 a “Feudo Nobile” and finally in 1594 a free Principality of the Holy Roman Empire. After the Appiani family, Piombino was controled by the Ludovisis, the Boncompagnis and the Baciocchi-Bonaparte families along a period of great political and administrative changements, wars and invasions. In 1815 with the Congress of Vienna Piombino ends its autonomy and is absorbed by the Granduchy of Tuscany of the Lorena family.

THE APPIANI FAMILY, THE RENAISSANCE AND LEONARDO

Thanks to the Appiani family’s domination Piombino became an artistic town by receiving a considerable patrimone of cultural assets and today it is the point of streight of the economic development. Its artistic splendour gets to the top during the 15th century; the Hospital of S.S. Trinita is dated to this period, as well as the Citadella buildings and the Chiostro near the Concattedrale of S. Antimo, these two works were created by the Florentine architect and sculptor Andrea Guardi. Even the fortress of Rivellino was built in this period (1447) to protect the Porta a Terra (Torrione) during the siege of Alfonso I° of Aragona, the king of Naples, who tried uselessly to conquer the town. Recent studies confirmed the presence of Leonardo in town, through the city projects the great scientist made at the beginning of the 16th century for Cesare Borgia and Jacopo IV° Appiani.

THE MILITARY ARCHITECTURE AND THE CASTLE

Piombino has always been particularly interesting for Italian and foreign countries thanks to its geographic position both for the Tuscan sea control and sea approach to the peninsula, both for the plenty of resources like the exploitation of iron; so that the small country has suffered several sieges, attempts at occupation and foreign threats.
Consequently, during the 16th century, the town strengthened its military structures: the “Fortezza Medicea” is dated back to 1553 and it was built by the duke of Tuscany Cosimo 1st De’ Medici, following a project of enlargement of the pre-existent caisson of the 15th century by the architect Giovanni Camerini. Today the building, which has been modified several times since that, is named as Castello. At the moment important works of restoration have started with the aim to give the population this ambitious structure as a new centre of a future museum of the town and the territory.

THE 18TH CENTURY AND THE MAREMMA PLANE

After the Appianis’government, the Principality was “bought” by Nicolò Ludovisi, Veno’s prince; the domination of the family lasted until the beginning of the 18th century when in the following century the Boncompagni – Ludovisis took their place.
The small country does not receive a particular stimulus from this political change but in the second half of the 18th century, like in the whole Europe, with a remarkable increase of maritime trafics and population. Consequently this revival was followed by hydraulic problems in the countryside in all the Tuscan Maremma plane after a long period of deterioration from the early Middle Ages to the 16th century; so, at the end of the 18th century, the large plane of the Principality had lots of marshes such as the marsh (“padule”) in Piombino, by the Cornia mouth and the marsh in Scarlino. Nowadays the only proof of this natural landscape is a small marsh of the Orti – Bottagone, a 100 hectare wide WWF oasis to the south of the Cornia mouth, a very important faunistic place for the presence of several species of birds like the flamingo, the stork, the European heron, the Himantopus himantopus.

THE LITTLE PARIS

At the beginning of the 19th century a wave of renewal arrived in Piombino after the French conquest when Napoleon gave the town to his sister Elisa, Felice Baciocchi’s wife. The local tradition very often created false trues about the character of the “Baciocca”; on the contrary the town has to thank this woman for the positive innovation it received towards the old political, administrative and economic laws, and for its social and economic development. Elisa herself encouraged the town even in the field of public works: for example, the creation of the touristic coasted road called “della Principessa” which still today links Piombino to San Vincenzo. The French period was so important for the town and its economic life that in those years it was nicknamed “the little Paris”.

THE 19TH CENTURY: THE “AGE OF IRON” STARTS

After the Napoleon period, the indipendent country desappears and in 1815 it is included in the Granduchy of Tuscany; nevertheless a general impulsus is observed in the economic democratic and building fields thanks to the reclamation of the Maremma plane which was decided in 1828 by Leopoldo IInd . At the end of the 19th century some factories were born in Piombino: “the Società Anonia degli Alti Forni” and “Fonderia di Piombino” and “Magona D’Italia”; since then a strong iron activity marks the local development by changing the small sea-town into an industrial centre. In a few decades the symbol of Piombino becomes the steel production which conditiones its economic and social development. But even the iron production made Piombino a flourishing industrial town, the iron crisis, from the 80ies on, shows the limits and the risks of a strong single culture.

THE BATTLE OF PIOMBINO

ANTECEDENT FACTS

On the 25th July 1943 the king discharges and makes Mussolini be arrested. It is the end of fascism. But the war goes on and in the whole Italy, during the 45 days before the Armistice of Allies, antifascist organizations revive. In Piombino, as a traditional antifascist town, the Committee of Antifascist Concentration is created and it joins the new political currents together with the favourable industrial trade-union rights.
On the 8th September 1943, after the transmission by radio of the bullettin of the Chief of Government, Marshal Badoglio, who gives notice of the signature of the Armistice, in Piombino too, like in all over the Italian territory, the news stir up positive emotions in the population for the end of the war. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm very soon fades away. The following night, a German fleet, at anchor in the harbour tries to occupy the town, by conquering the battery of “Semaforo”. But the sudden reaction obliges the enemy to go away. The following day passes by while the population is more and more afraid of another German attack; all over the area, after the news of the Armistice, military movements are evident. In this uncertain moment the Committee of Antifascist Concentration becomes the principal character of the following events, by leading the popular revolt and encouraging the army to reaction.

THE PREPARATIVES FOR THE BATTLE

At down of 10th September 1943 a German fleet with two torpedo-boat destroyers stops in front of the harbour of Piombino. It is commanded by the officer Albrand who asks to dock for water and coal. The officer of Marina Piombino, Amedeo Capuano, opposes the request which hides the will to conquer the town, but general De Vecchi, the officer of the 215th Division Costiera, and an old fascist, authorizes the dock. The news of the dramatic situation at the harbour gets to town and upsets the population and the workers of the factories Ilva and Magona. The first popular requests ask the authorities for the removal of German fleet, unsuccessfully. Time passes by and the civil rebellion increases and begins to organize for the imminent encounter which the German Officer is organizing meantime; in fact Albrand realizes how serious the situation is in front of evident elements for a resistance against the invasion, so that he prepares the attack with care. Even in this period, the Committee is important not only for the preparation of the population to battle, but also as a contact with the army; and thanks to the pressure on the Officer Perni an armoured battallion nearby encamped, is added to the defence of the town. Soldiers and civilians organize the defence near the batteries of Montecaselli, Salivoli and Falcone. Meantine German army prepares the attack along three fronts: the conquest of the stationing of “Semaforo”, the occupation of the harbour, the invasion along the road towards the town.

THE COAT OF ARMS OF PIOMBINO

The Commune is a body with a legal status of a public law; hence it acquires the right of the name and the coat of arms and the denomination of its villages and a group of houses. Piombino dates its first coat of arms to the 11th century when the town begins to get its city structure. The oldest picture we have today traces back to the 15th century showing the Appiani family’s colours (silver - white - and red). Green and gold in use today first appear in the 19th century. The most important element present in the shape of an escutcheon shows a strenghthened town, with 3 towers and a church; on the sides two shoots (the first one of laurel and the other one of oak) are represented and joined at the basis. The crown, which in the old times represented the rank of the Principality, is over the escutcheon and it was given to Piombino thanks to a diploma of the Emperor Rodolfo II° on 7th February 1594; it shows the title of town by a Royal Decree on the 4th September 1927. The rocky spur symbolizes the sea-town, standing on the homonymous promontory.