Artistic History of Monte San Savino in Tuscany Italy
One of the bas-relief panels of the tomb of Bishop Tarlati, in the Duomo of Arezzo, recalls this event: we see the Savinesi paying homage to the victorious prelate, while his soldiers demolish the castle. But the town soon did rise from its ashes, and, ironically, with the help of Arezzo, aware of its strategic importance. Monte San Savino, a few years later, was one of the Lands left to Perugia when, in 1344, Florence occupied Arezzo; in the following forty years, the town was dominated alternately by Perugia, Arezzo, and Siena. Finally, in 1388, Monte San Savino signed an alliance with the Signoria of Florence, thus becoming a Florentine outpost, jutting into the southern part of the state of Siena, dose to the Papal States. This vanguard fortress was useful for Florence, but the Savinesi were again victimised.
Every time an army moved up from the south to attack Florence, Monte San Savino was the first to undergo the consequences. And the damage the town suffered between 1388 and 1550 was enormous; whenever troops went past, the Iand was systematically devastated, Livestock stolen. And for a settlement living off agriculture all this meant famine, soaring prices and plague.
Harvests were severely damaged during the siege by King Ladislao of Naples (who, unable to win military successes, took his revenge by destroying crops, earning from the peasants the nickname , King Grain-spoiler). Destruction also followed the siege of the army of the League (1479), the Vitelli revolt in Arezzo (1502), the sack of Rome, and the conquest of Florence by the Emperor’s troops (1527-30).
Meanwhile a local family, the Di Monte, had established itself in Rome, where it soon reached a high position in the aristocracy. Antonio Di Monte, created cardinal in 1511, was to become one of the closest advisers of Julius Il, and his nephew Giovan Maria was to become Pope in 1550, omissis Baldovino, the brother of Julius III, was named Count of San Savino and Gargonza, Palazzuolo, and Alberoro, and granted the investiture of the fief on condition that he would erect no fortifications there and, every year, would give Florence a silver cup as a token of fealty. He was succeeded by Fabiano, but in 1570 the Di Monte family died out. From being a County, in 1604, Monte San Savino became a March, under the Orsini family of Pitigliano. But the Marquisette of San Savino did not enjoy a long life: in 1644, after the death of the last Orsini.
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