i-florence

Volterra is one of the most important historical Tuscan town, first great Etruscan ‘metropolis’ (or as the ancient said ‘lucumonia‘) then Roman settlement. The town known medieval, Medicean and Grand-ducal memorable events, despite to its decentralized location. In this page only its fortifications will be described, masterpieces of the medieval military architecture, and not the many other monuments, of ancient and medieval times, that rise inside the city walls.

Approaching Volterra the first thing to be noticed is its profile crowned by the imposing fortress, that rises at dominion of the underlying territory. This view make us understand how great was the strategical importance of the city. The hill on which it rises, about 555 meters high, is the higher of this area, unapproachable from every side without being sighted with large advance.

Volterra has Etruscan origins, at that time was called the rich Velhatri, and its first town-wall enclosure, built during the 5th/4th century A.C., was seven kilometers long. This was the era of its greatest territorial expansion that, with the aid of  the minerals extracted from the mines of the near ‘Colline Metallifere‘ (Metalliferous Hills), brought Volterra to dominate the other ‘lucumonie’ (big cities) of the zone as Populonia and all the Tyrrhenian coast from Piombino to Luni, in the north of Tuscany. It was supposed that in 300 AC the city counted  25.000 inhabitants! In the 80 AC Volterra was, after a long siege, definitely conquered by the Roman, last big Etruscan lucumonia to capitulate. During the Longobard domination the city became a  territory depending directly from the emperor, called ‘gastaldato’, but in the 10th century the history of Volterra  turned into a negative trend. Hungarian troops, invoked to help the population in the war against the king of Italy Benengario I°, sacked the city, reducing it in ruins. After this episode, that left the town almost uninhabited, Volterra never reached its former Etruscan greatness.

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