Montescudaio The name comes from the Latin Mons Mons or Scutarius Scutaris, but the settlement is much older, dating back to Villanova, in the early stages of the formation of the Etruscan civilization. In a tomb near the village was found a cinerary urn of the ninth or tenth century BC for its exquisite and unique decoration with plastic figures on the cover is a unique and very important at that time. It is located, along with other furnishings, the Archaeological Museum of Florence.
The first historical documents are found around the year one thousand, when the “castle”, ie the fortified village surrounded by walls, belonged to the Gherardesca. At that time the accounts settled permanently in Montescudaio, where they built a palace or a fortress and, since the fourteenth century, gave rise to its own branch of the family, which took its name from the village: the accounts of Montescudaio. It was, apparently, a race particularly bold and impetuous, a descendant of the John Della Gherardesca for his lack of athleticism was called “Cockroach”. Already in 1305 the children of the Cockroach were denounced because they had made raids and cattle rustling in the territory of Volterra. In 1345 the Montescudaio, allied with the Republic of Pisa and it has appointed vicars in Maremma, were protagonists of a dramatic episode of treason: with forged letters led the castles of their jurisdiction, Montescudaio, Guardistallo, Bibbona, Rosignano, Vada and to Fauglia rebel against Pisa itself. Of course, the revolt was quelled because not long after Montescudaio were again accepted in Pisa, where he later played a secondary role in the struggle for power between the factions in the city. In 1395-96 revolted again against the Republic of making raids into the territory of Pisa, now backed up from Florence.
In 1406, when Pisa with the whole countryside was sold to Florence, the accounts were quick to get credit in this city, and were re-appointed vicars in Maremma. But the inhabitants of Montescudaio failed on this occasion to get rid of them, submitting voluntarily to the Florentine Republic from which were allowed to form in the Municipality. In January 1406, in fact, a delegation of four men Montescudaio, along with another of Guardistallo, left for Florence to treat submission. The representatives not only obtained permission to form themselves into the City and to draw up their own statutes, but also the ouster of the accounts, to which was given the ban to enter the castle of Montescudaio.
The territory of the municipality was made up of small private property and large communal areas – mostly pasture and woodland – which were exploited collectively. The inhabitants of Montescudaio could graze the cattle and cut wood for their own use on payment of a sum fixed by the statutes and payable to the chamberlain of the community. Hunting and fishing were free.
The statutes – would apply both to Montescudaio for Guardistallo and from 1414 also for Casale Maritime – regulated the election of the consuls (the highest government office, whose names were extracted from a bag), and directors, elected by voice. The statutes defined the various municipal offices and establishing their penalties and fines, which, in addition to the fees for grazing, were one of the highest revenue of the municipality. He had to pay any kind of transgression: play ball in the streets, swearing, do filth in the country, send the cattle to pasture outside the times and the boundaries established, but it could also be fined a worker who, for example, had rented a ground Municipal and worked little or evil.
The statutes regulating the life of the villagers during the seasons:
in March, had an obligation to make the garden from May the “roads” had to take care of the roads, in September you could hire the municipal guards to watch over the vines and figs. It also stipulated that the number of animals that each family could send on the pasture, it regulated the slaughter and sale of meat and decreed that the stubble and the acorns were reserved for the pigs, the most important animals to feed family could also circulate freely in the country.
As regards the rules of hygiene, you should water the animals in the source reserved for men and the inhabitants were obliged to sweep the front door at home, especially on Sundays. When the dirty water were poured into the street had to warn in advance, particularly at night you had to shout three times, “water” before turning something on the pavement.
The community suffered several invasions and devastation. In 1447 it was attacked and sacked by the troops of Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples, at war with Florence. The invasion, among other things, was made possible by another betrayal of accounts of Montescudaio who had allied with Aragon thus facilitating the fall of the castles maremmani. In 1478 Montescudaio was invaded by Ferdinand of Aragon, son of Alfunso, and a year later, was sacked by the same Florentine troops, start to regain it. Following negotiations, the people least able to avoid the fire of the castle.
The age of the City ended in 1648, when the Medici made the whole area a feud that was granted to the Marquis Ridolfi of Florence and they confirmed again by Lorraine in 1738. The land returned then to be owned by “Really, sir,” the hunting and fishing privileges were again the feudal lord. The Marquis Ridolfi forbade her by a decree of 1778 in all its territory, triggering a strong protest of the population.
Another part of the woods was bound by the Regie Ferriere Magona in Cecina, plant for the smelting and working of iron, which had the exclusive right of exploitation of the surrounding forests for firewood supplies needed to run the ovens.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were therefore quite difficult for men to Montescudaio. The feuds were abolished by the Law of 1749, introduced by Lorraine, and from 1770 began to Montescudaio sales and rent concessions of land is grand ducal and municipal sphere of agrarian reform of Grand Duke Peter Leopold. The reform proposed a new and more widespread distribution of land to encourage a more rational and intensive cultivation, aided by new agricultural techniques. It is in fact reached this purpose, but not to benefit the people of the castle, but by creating a new class of landowners, who were working in the fields day or sharecropping. The inhabitants of Montescudaio had tried to oppose the privatization of communal land by sending a petition to the administrator of Pisa, in which they expressed their concern that the land could end up in the hands of a few landowners who could ask for excessive payments for grazing, cultivation and wood or deny them altogether. The population would have been so put “the hook in the throat.” The petition was rejected as groundless, but in fact more than half of the communal lands of Montescudaio was assigned to only two owners, Guerrini Montescudaio and Chancellors of Vincenzo Casale.
In 1846, the agglomeration of the oldest houses of the castle was destroyed by a violent earthquake. While the village, which extended south to the valley, he was saved in large part, on top all houses collapsed and the church of Santa Maria, just enlarged and adorned, was ruined. Eight people died under the rubble.
The Grand Duke in his visit to the earthquake-hit areas in Montescudaio also stopped allocating funds for reconstruction.
Another earthquake struck the town in 1871 and completely destroyed what was left even partially standing, such as leftovers of the old palace of Montescudaio.
In the nineteenth century there was a notable increase in population, even if the economic situation remained difficult (in 1784, there were 434 inhabitants in 1825, 707 in 1841 and 1,008 in 1901, 1,931). After the unification of Italy the taxes were very heavy, even those with low incomes and low revenue of the municipality. The number of “Les Miserables” increased considerably. We recorded movements between countries of manpower, in search of work, including seasonal. The activity was predominantly agricultural and the main products were, as for centuries, the oil and the wine. At the beginning of the twentieth century the wine was an important product in the provincial trade.
Montescudaio has reached the maximum of 2,880 inhabitants in 1927. After World War II occurred on demographic collapse due to migration to the new industrial and commercial centers along the coast, Cecina and Rosignano (Montescudaio in 1951 numbered 2,010 inhabitants, while in 1967, only 1,298). The Municipality has still managed to offset the loss with the new settlement of the forint, location on the border with Cecina, and the nearby industrial area of Poggio Gagliardo. So last census occurred even a slight increase in the number of inhabitants. There remains the problem of an aging population: 40% of residents has more than 60 years.
In addition to trade and industry in Poggio Gagliardo, Montescudaio has been a significant development in the field of tourism with new residential complexes along the road to Cecina.
For 19 years Montescudaio produces a DOC wine, red and white, which can be purchased in the ten farms that form the consortium of Montescudaio DOC wine (made from grapes of Sangiovese, Trebbiano, Malvasia, Canaiolo and Cherry red for red; Trebbiano, Malvasia, Vermentino and Canaiolo white for white. production of 6,000 hectoliters per year.
Taken from the Guide to the Val di Cecina, curated by Susanne Mordhorst, New Image Publishing
http://tuscanysea.com/backoffice/immagini/tuscanysea.com/28-17-5-2013-11-35-391.jpg
http://tuscanysea.com/backoffice/immagini/tuscanysea.com/28-17-5-2013-11-35-392.jpg