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Orbetello is a town and ''
comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces ('' province''). The can ...
'' in the
province of Grosseto The province of Grosseto ( it, links=no, provincia di Grosseto) is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Grosseto. As of 2013 the province had a total population of 225,098 people. Geography The Province of Gros ...
(
Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...
),
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. It is located about south of
Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is ...
, on the eponymous lagoon, which is home to an important Natural Reserve.


History

Orbetello was an ancient Etruscan settlement, which in 280 BC passed under the control of the Romans, who had founded their colony of Cosa (near the modern Ansedonia). The emperor
Domitian Domitian (; la, Domitianus; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavi ...
had a substantial property here, which had belonged to the Domitii Ahenobarbi and he inherited through his wife Domitia Longina. He also built other sumptuous villas nearby for his courtiers. In the Middle Ages it was a possession of the Aldobrandeschi family, who held it until the 14th century, when it was acquired by the city of Orvieto. After several struggles with the Orsini of Pitigliano and Orvieto, in the following centuries Orbetello was captured by the Sienese Republic. In the mid-16th century it was part of the State of Presides, a Spanish possession, becoming its capital. The town was besieged by the French during the 1635-1659 Franco-Spanish War. This led to the inconclusive naval Battle of Orbetello on 14 June; in July, a Spanish army forced the French to lift the siege. It formed part of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany The Grand Duchy of Tuscany ( it, Granducato di Toscana; la, Magnus Ducatus Etruriae) was an Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In t ...
until 1860, when it joined the newly unified Kingdom of Italy. In 1927–33,
Italo Balbo Italo Balbo (6 June 1896 – 28 June 1940) was an Italian fascist politician and Blackshirts' leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa. Due to his young ...
's "air cruises" started from Orbetello's lagoon. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the German Air Force's 2nd Squadron of Embarked Air Group 196 used the lagoon as a base for its
Arado Ar 196 The Arado Ar 196 was a shipboard reconnaissance low-wing monoplane aircraft built by the German firm of Arado starting in 1936. The next year it was selected as the winner of a design contest and became the standard aircraft of the ''Kriegsmarin ...
float planes for a brief period in 1943.


Government


''Frazioni''

The municipality is formed by the municipal seat of Orbetello and the towns and villages (''
frazioni A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territ ...
'') of Albinia, Ansedonia, Fonteblanda, Giannella, San Donato and
Talamone Talamone is a town in Tuscany, on the west coast of central Italy, administratively a frazione of the comune of Orbetello, province of Grosseto, in the Tuscan Maremma. Talamone is easily reached from Via Aurelia, and is about from Grosseto and ...
.


List of mayors


Main sights

*The city walls (5th century BC). *Cathedral of ''Santa Maria Assunta'', built over an Etruscan-Roman temple and restructured in 1375 along Tuscan-Gothic lines. Preceded by a step, it houses some notable 15th-century frescoes. *The Spanish ''Forte delle Saline'', in the ''frazione'' of Albinia. *Remains of the Roman city of Cosa in the ''frazione'' of Ansedonia. *Ruins of the Monastery of ''Sant'Angelo''.


References


External links



Orbetello, Peninsulas of Italy {{Grosseto-geo-stub