Abbadia San Salvatore

Abbey of Sant'Antimo

Albarese

Acquapendente


anghiari

Archipelago Toscano


Arcidosso


Arezzo


Asciano


Badia di Coltibuono


Bagni San Filippo

Bagno Vignoni

Barberino Val d'Elsa

Beaches

Bolsena Lake


Bomarzo

Brunello di Montalcino

Buonconvento

Campagnatico


Capalbio


Castel del Piano


Castelfiorentino

Castell'Azzara

Castellina in Chianti


Castelmuzio


Castelnuovo Bererdenga


Castiglioncello Bandini


Castiglione della Pescaia


Castiglione d'Orcia


Castiglion Fiorentino


Celleno


Certaldo


Chinaciano Terme


Chianti


Chiusi


Cinigiano


Città di Castello

CivitÀ di Bagnoregio


Colle Val d'Elsa


Cortona


Crete Senesi


Diaccia Botrona

Isola d'Elba

Firenze


Follonica


Gaiole in Chianti


Gavorrano

Gerfalco


Greve in Chianti


Grosseto


Lago Trasimeno


La Foce


Manciano


Maremma


Massa Marittima


Montagnola Senese


Montalcino


Monte Amiata


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montecalvello

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Montemassi


Montemerano


Monte Oliveto Maggiore


Montepulciano


Monteriggioni


Monticchiello


Monticiano


Orbetello


Orvieto


Paganico


Parco Naturale della Maremma


Perugia


Piancastagnaio


Pienza


Pisa


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Prato

Radda in Chianti


Roccalbegna


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San Bruzio


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San Galgano


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Sansepolcro


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Umbria


Val d'Elsa


Val di Merse


Val d'Orcia


Valle d'Ombrone


Vetulonia


Viterbo

Volterra




 
Walking in Tuscany
             
 
Gavorrano
The medieval center of Gavorrano rises on the side of Mount Calvo in the heart of the Grosseto Maremma with a splendid view of sea and hills.
album Surroundings
       
   


Gavorrano

   
       
   

Gavorrano s located on the northern slope of Poggio Ballone, east of Scarlino, in an area extremely rich in terms of mining, especially for large deposits of pyrite which were intensively exploited until the early 1980s. Lying on a smoothly shaped hill lending towards the seacoast of Follonica,
The town is famous because of Pia dei Tolomei ("Siena mi fé, disfecemi Maremma" whose fate is related in the Divina Commedia, "Purgatory" by Dante Alighieri), and for being the birthplace of the writer Giuseppe Bandi, Italian patriot and journalist.

Main sights

Pieve di San Giuliano, main church of Gavorrano.
Oratorio del Santissimo Sacramento.
Palazzo Comunale, town hall of Gavorrano.
Teatro delle Rocce ("Mine Theatre").
Old walls of Gavorrano.
Palazzo Bonaiuti, along the Via Aurelia.
Church of San Giuseppe, in Bagno di Gavorrano.
Church of San Biagio, in Caldana.
Oratorio di Sant'Antonio da Padova, in Caldana.
Palazzo Tosi, in Caldana.
Old walls of Caldana.
Church of Sant'Egidio, in Giuncarico.
Oratorio del Santissimo Crocifisso, in Giuncarico.
Government Palace, in Giuncarico.
Palazzo Tedeschini Camaiori, in Giuncarico.
Old walls of Giuncarico.
Church of Santa Rita da Cascia, in Grilli.
Lupo Farm, near Grilli.
Church of San Leonardo, in Ravi.
Old walls of Ravi.
Remains of Castel di Pietra ("Stone Castle"), built by the Aldobrandeschi.
Rocca di Frassinello, wine cellar designed by Renzo Piano.
Tecnological and Archaeological Park of Colline Metallifere Grossetane.


History


Pietra

Castel di Pietro in Gavorrano, where Pia de Tolomei was pushed to her death

 

The Etruscan territory of Gavorrano fell under the direct control of Vetulonia which, through the paths along the river valleys of Sovata and Bruna, was rich in deposits of minerals to flow around the Lake Accesa. Of particular interest are excavations conducted by the University of Florence on the Santa Teresa estate between 2004 and 2007. The discoveries included five gravestones used between the mid-7th century BC and the second half of the 6th century BC, surrounded by many farms. The results of these operations, to be seen in an exhibition opened in the Documentation Centre of Gavorrano July 12, 2008, show a high percentage of households owning graves. In addition to agricultural resources, the population took advantage of the benefits of their strategic position which allowed control over the flow of minerals to the manufacturing center of Vetulonia. The town of Gavorrano, built after the year 1000 as a possession of the bishops of Roselle, was later transferred to the Alberti family. In the 13th century it came under the control of the Pannocchieschi family, and then Volterra, Massa Marittima. With the fall of Massa Marittima, the town passed under the dominion of Siena. In the second half of the 16th century, the area was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany after the final fall of the Republic of Siena. In more-recent history, the pyrite mine played an important role, changing the history of the village. In 1898 a loaf of pyrite came to light, thanks to the work of a citizen, Francesco Alberti. From this starting point, Europe's most important pyrite mine developed. This led to Gavorrano's primary importance for the whole area (as successor to the city of Massa Marittima, which had always been dominant in the area) after the war until the early 1970s (when it began to develop Follonica). After the war, the village of Scarlino became independent, breaking away from the territory of Gavorrano.


Nello dei Pannocchieschi and Pia dei Tolomei

A chapter in the history of the village of Gavorrano concerns the life of Pia de 'Tolomei, a lady from Siena who met her death in the castle Castel di Pietra, located in the east of the town. She was married to Nello Pannocchieschi, who is known to have been lord of that castle, mayor of Volterra and Lucca, captain of the Guelph cuts, in 1284 and lived until at least 1322. He shut up his wife in his castle, and had her murdered in 1297 by having her thrown out of a window, after having locked her up for a while in his castle, perhaps because of her supposed infidelity, perhaps because he desired to get rid of her to marry someone else. The story was made famous by Dante in the fifth canto of his Purgatorio. The story is commemorated on the feast of Salto della Contessa ("The jump of the Countess"), which is held in Gavorrano every second Sunday of the month of August. Comune



Parco Minerario Naturalistico Gavorrano

Gavoranno was an important mining center and the stone quarries and infrastructure for its excavation are still visible in the area. Today a part of the abandoned mining structures has been converted into a large museum complex: the Parco Minerario and Naturalistico di Gavorrano (Mining and Naturalistic Park of Gavorrano).

Walking in Tuscany | Itineraries (it)



Rocca di Frassinello


 

Ponte della Oia
Ponte della Pia

 

Eremo Rosia, Sovicille
The Hermitage of Santa Lucia in Rosia (Sovicille)

 

 


Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pia de' Tolomei (1868–1880) (model: Jane Morris), Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

“I immediately knew that the right place to build the structure was the top of the hill. Take the hill, excavate the cellars, make a platform to cover it like a high plain from which to survey the extraordinary countryside. You just couldn’t imagine a simpler building.”

Renzo Piano

 

Rocca di Frassinello, wine cellar designed by Renzo Piano

La Rocca di Frassinello winery, in the heart of the Maremma area of Tuscany, where a joint venture between Italian and
French wine producers hired world-famous superstar architect Renzo Piano to design their new winemaking facility and cellars.

 

Maremma has a long established wine growing tradition, especially in the North (Bolgheri and environs) and the South (Morellino di Scansano, Montecucco).
Rocca di Frassinello, was a unique joint venture between Castellare di Castellina, and Les Domaines Baron De Rothschild-Lafite, already world-famous for Chateau Lafite in Bordeaux. It was the first partnership of its kind.
Rocca di Frassinello, between Bolgheri and Scansano is a building designed by Renzo Piano. Combining traditional forms of Tuscan architecture with an industrial theme that features steel-mesh shades, a terracotta piazza and a tall spire concealing heliostats that reflect daylight into the interior, the result is breathtaking.[1]
Wines include Poggio alla Guardia, Le Sughere di Frassinello and the “Grand Cru” Rocca di Frassinello.


Rocca di Frassinello

Loc. Giuncarico
Comune di Gavorrano



Guide to Tuscany | Wines in Tuscany

 

  
Rocca di Frassinello, the underground cellar
Underneath is the cellar with more than 2,500 oak barrels, illuminated by a ray of sunshine reflected by a series of mirrors down a tower.
Caldana and Ravi, together with the remains of the Rocca of Castel di Pietra, are important testimonies of Gavorrano's medieval past.



La chiesa di San Biagio in Caldana
  Caldana
Caldana
  Campiglia Marittima, Pieve di San Giovanni
 
   


Gavorrano is a mountain-side municipality ( commune), located about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Florence and about 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Grosseto. Gavorrano borders the municipalities of Castiglione della Pescaia, Grosseto, Massa Marittima, Roccastrada and Scarlino.

 

 

Enlarge map

 

 

These are the frazioni (villages) of the comune of Gavorrano: Bagno di Gavorrano, a village situated in the plain below the old town; Caldana, a medieval hill-town; Castellaccia, a little mining village; Filare, a mining village located on the road between Gavorrano and Bagno.
Giuncarico, a medieval hill-town; Grilli, a modern village situatad in the plain and Ravi, a medieval hill-town.

Walking in Tuscany
Cala Violina, situated in the municipality of Scarlino, is one of the most beautiful beaches in southern Tuscany. Cala Violina (in Italian “cala” means cove) is a public beach in the shape of a half-moon, offering white sand and crystal-clear water. To the rear of the beach the greenery of the woods, combined with the blueness of the water and the whiteness of the sand, provides a sublime image.


Cala Violina


Cala Violina beach is immersed in a green landscape formed by a dense and lush Mediterranean vegetation where you can find picnic tables, particularly useful if you brought with you your lunch and decide to spend the whole day at the beach.

Cala Violina is certainly among the best beaches of Tuscany, if not the best. The only drawback is the long walk to get there, and the fact that in high season it can get a little overcrowded.



Walking in Tuscany | A walk close to the sea, towards Cala Violina and Cala Martina
Here a detailed map with the instructions to get to Cala Violina and Cala Martina, and where to park.

 


[1]
Situated on a hill in Tuscany surrounded by vineyards, the La Rocca winery revisits traditional forms of Tuscan architecture within a modern, industrial-inspired structure.
The scheme is essentially composed of an open piazza, a glass pavilion and a cellar, which is the heart of the project. The cellar is a large underground hall, arranged like an amphitheatre, with a capacity of 2,500 oak barrels.
The scarlet tower that tops the building and that can be seen from miles around supports three circular mirrors that direct light down into the cellar.
The glass pavilion houses administrative and commercial spaces and is open to visitors.
In its choice of materials, principally glass and terracotta, the building itself represents the mix of industrial and traditional processes in winemaking today.[Source: Renzo Piano Building Workshop | La Rocca Winery |www.rpbw.com]


Bibliography

Aldo Mazzolai, Storia ed arte della Maremma, Grosseto, 1981.
Aldo Mazzolai, Guida della Maremma. Percorsi tra arte e natura, Florence, Le Lettere, 1997



Olp postcard Punta Ala, 1962, Collezione cartoline Albertomos

Old postcard Punta Ala, 1962, Collezione cartoline Albertomos

 

 
 
This article incorporates material from the Wikipedia article Gavorrano published under the GNU Free Documentation License.