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Stia in Arezzo, Tuscany

The Municipal territory of Stia extends in the Casentino for an area of 62,71 square kilometres at the foot of Monte Falterona, and is crossed by the high course of the Arno. A Roman settlement on the road which rises from the Arno, crossing the Apennines to reach San Godenzo, it was a feudal centre ; from 1872 an autonomous municipality, united to Pratovecchio in 1929, it reached its present day aspect in 1934 with the aggregation to it of the districts of Papiano and Ponte d’Arno, taken from the Pratovecchio territory, and the zone comprised between the river Arno, the streams Vicena and Asinaia and the borders of the province of Firenze.

Recorded in a document of 1054, Stia belonged to the Porciano branch of the Counts Guidi and was for centuries the “mercatale” (marketplace) of the aforementioned Castle. Around 1230, Count Baldino had a sumptuous dwelling constructed, called il Palagio, on the banks of the Staggia stream, from which developed a new conglomeration which joined itself to the village already in existence on the mountain, renamed then as Stia Vecchia. It was like this that the branch of the Counts called “di Palagio” was started, they maintained possession of the land of Stia until the village was put under siege by the Fiorentina republic (1402) and Count Antonio who was the last of this branch was ousted. Under the trust of Firenze the Municipality of “del Palagio Fiorentino” was constituted, the result of the union of the Municipality of Montemezzano with the rural residences of Lonnano, Papiano, Stia Vecchia and the Borgo di Stia. The noted jurist and man of politics Bernardo Tanucci (1698-1783), Court Minister to Carlo di Borbone and then valuable adviser, to Ferdinando V, was born in this area. During the last war the entire town underwent destruction, raids and reprisals, the most grave being that of April 1944 in the Vallucciole zone which provoked more than one hundred victims.

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