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Fortezza Medicea (Volterra)
The Fortezza Medicea (Medici Fortress) of Volterra is built on the highest point of the hill overlooking the town. Despite its name, the origins of the fortress predate the ascendancy of the Medicis. The southern part was constructed at the command of the Duke of Athens who had been appointed governor of Florence in 1342. For more than a century the once friendly relationship between Volterra and Florence became increasingly complicated and at times confrontational: the discovery locally of valuable Alum in the 1470s focused the interest of Florence, and in 1472 7,000 Florentine troops besieged and then sacked the town, after which Florentine control over Volterra and the alum mines was no longer in doubt. The fortress was upgraded by another Florentine ruler, Lorenzo the magnificent who was also responsible for the construction of the adjacent newer fortress in 1474. The two fortresses are linked by a stone “curtain wall”. The fortress is used currently as a medium security ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volterra
Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods. History Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as ''Velathri'' or ''Vlathri'' and to the Romans as ''Volaterrae'', is a town and ''comune'' in the Tuscany region of Italy. The town was a Bronze Age settlement of the Proto-Villanovan culture, and an important Etruscan center (''Velàthre'', ''Velathri'' or ''Felathri'' in Etruscan, ''Volaterrae'' in Latin language), one of the "twelve cities" of the Etruscan League. The site is believed to have been continuously inhabited as a city since at least the end of the 8th century BC. It became a municipium allied to Rome at the end of the 3rd century BC. The city was a bishop's residence in the 5th century, and its episcopal power was affirmed during the 12th century. With the decline of the episcopate and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Medici
The House of Medici ( , ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of Tuscany, and prospered gradually until it was able to fund the Medici Bank. This bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century and facilitated the Medicis' rise to political power in Florence, although they officially remained citizens rather than monarchs until the 16th century. The Medici produced four popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X (1513–1521), Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), Pope Pius IV (1559–1565) and Pope Leo XI (1605)—and two queens of France— Catherine de' Medici (1547–1559) and Marie de' Medici (1600–1610). In 1532, the family acquired the hereditary title Duke of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany after territorial expansion. The Medici ruled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter VI, Count Of Brienne
Walter VI of Brienne (c. 1304 – 19 September 1356) was a French nobleman and crusader. He was the count of Brienne in France, the count of Conversano and Lecce in southern Italy and claimant to the Duchy of Athens in Frankish Greece. Life Early life in Italy Walter was the son of Count Walter V of Brienne, duke of Athens, and Jeanne de Châtillon (died 1354), the daughter of the count of Porcien, constable to King Philip IV of France. As grandson of Count Hugh of Brienne (d. 1296), he was heir to a vast property all around the Mediterranean. After his father's death at the Battle of Halmyros on 15 March 1311, Walter became count of Brienne, Lecce, and Conversano. However, the Duchy of Athens, except for Argos and Nauplia, had been overrun by the Catalan Company, and Walter spent much of his life in an unsuccessful struggle to recover that inheritance of his family. He spent most of his life in Italy and France and left Argos-Nauplia to be ruled by guardians. His moth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico anno 2013, datISTAT/ref> Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (established in 1861). The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Ital ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alum
An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double salt, double sulfate salt (chemistry), salt of aluminium with the general chemical formula, formula , where is a valence (chemistry), monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium. By itself, "alum" often refers to potassium alum, with the formula . Other alums are named after the monovalent ion, such as sodium alum and ammonium alum. The name "alum" is also used, more generally, for salts with the same formula and structure, except that aluminium is replaced by another valence (chemistry), trivalent metal ion like chromium#Chromium(III), chromium, and/or sulfur is replaced by another chalcogen like selenium. The most common of these analogs is chrome alum . In most industries, the name "alum" (or "papermaker's alum") is used to refer to aluminium sulfate, , which is used for most industrial flocculation (the variable is an integer whose size depends on the amount of water absorbed into the alum). In medic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lorenzo De' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (''Lorenzo il Magnifico'' ) by contemporary Florentines, he was a magnate, diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists, and poets. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. He held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with the mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the Golden Age of Florence. On the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italian League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the Pazzi conspi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortezza Medicea Restaurant
Fortezza Medicea restaurant (officially ''Cene Galeotte'', 'convict dinners') is an occasional restaurant in Volterra, Italy. Gourmet dinners are cooked and served to paying guests by inmates in the prison housed in the town's Renaissance-era fortress ('' Fortezza Medicea'', ). The project began in 2006; it has been on hiatus since 2020. The fortress, built in 1474, is a high-security prison for criminals serving at least seven years. In 2006, the prison administration instituted the occasional dinners as a rehabilitation scheme. Inmates selected for their good behaviour prepare a multi-course dinner and serve it at the prison. Proceeds are donated to charity. In the inaugural season, the chef was also an inmate, serving a life term; in subsequent years, invited guest chefs have presided. Guests must apply at least two weeks in advance, undergo a background check, and on arrival show identification and be assigned a registration number; cutlery is plastic. The dinners proved popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castles In Tuscany
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures In Volterra
A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term ''building'' compare the list of nonbuilding structures. Buildings serve several societal needs – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the ''outside'' (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful). Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasses of much artisti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Tuscany
Tuscany is named after its pre-Roman inhabitants, the Etruscans. It was ruled by Rome for many centuries. In the Middle Ages, it saw many invasions, but in the Renaissance period it helped lead Europe back to civilization. Later, it settled down as a grand duchy. It was conquered by Napoleonic France in the late 18th century and became part of the Italian Republic in the 19th century. Apennine, Proto-Villanovan and Villanovan culture The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the middle and late Bronze parallels that of the archaic Greeks. The Tuscan area was inhabited by peoples of the so-called Apennine culture in the second millennium BC (roughly 1400–1150 BC) who had trading relationships with the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations in the Aegean Sea, and, at the end of the Bronze Age, by peoples of the so-called of the Proto-Villanovan culture (c. 1100-900 BC) part of the central European Urnfield culture system. Following this, at the beginning of the Iron Age, the Vill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renaissance Architecture In Tuscany
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas and achievements of classical antiquity. It occurred after the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages and was associated with great social change. In addition to the standard periodization, proponents of a "long Renaissance" may put its beginning in the 14th century and its end in the 17th century. The traditional view focuses more on the early modern aspects of the Renaissance and argues that it was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects and argue that it was an extension of the Middle Ages. However, the beginnings of the period – the early Renaissance of the 15th century and the Italian Proto-Renaissance from around 1250 or 1300 – overlap considerably with the Late Middle Ages, conventionally dat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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