Piombino | |
---|---|
Comune di Piombino | |
Coordinates: 42°55′N10°32′E / 42.917°N 10.533°E | |
Country | Italy |
Region | Toscana |
Province | Livorno (LI) |
Frazioni | Baratti, Colmata, Fiorentina, La Sdriscia, Populonia, Populonia Stazione, Riotorto |
Government | |
• Mayor | Francesco Ferrari (Fratelli d'Italia) |
Area | |
• Total | 129 km2 (50 sq mi) |
Elevation | 21 m (69 ft) |
Population (January 2017) [2] | |
• Total | 34,041 |
• Density | 260/km2 (680/sq mi) |
Demonym | Piombinesi |
Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
Postal code | 57025 |
Dialing code | 0565 |
Patron saint | St Anastasia and St Augustine [3] |
Website | Official website |
Piombino is an Italian town and comune of about 35,000 inhabitants in the province of Livorno (Tuscany). It lies on the border between the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, in front of Elba Island and at the northern side of Maremma.
It has an ancient historical centre, derived from the time in which it was the Etruscans' port, in the surroundings of Populonia. In the Middle Ages, it was instead an important port of the Republic of Pisa.
Its hinterland hosts a considerable industrial area. Its port is still heavily used, both for industry and for tourism, with ferry boats to Portoferraio (Elba) and Olbia (Sardinia).
The bounding communes of Piombino are Campiglia Marittima, Follonica, San Vincenzo and Suvereto. The town has seven civil parishes ( frazioni ): Baratti, Colmata, Fiorentina, La Sdriscia, Populonia, Populonia Stazione and Riotorto.
The area of modern Piombino was settled since ancient times. During the Etruscan era the main city in the area was Populonia, now a frazione within the comune of Piombino.
The name Piombino derives almost certainly from Populino, meaning "Small Populonia", which the refugees gave to a small village where they had taken refuge after the city had been attacked by Greek pirates (9th century). It is also probable that Piombino had already been founded during the period of Ostrogoth rule.
In 1022 the Monastery of San Giustiniano was founded in the area, boosting the activity of fishermen, sailors and workers. In 1115 Piombino submitted to the Republic of Pisa, becoming its second main port: authority was exerted by a Capitano ("Captain"). During the conflicts between the Pisane and the Genoese (12th–13th centuries), the city was sacked various times. In 1248 the Capitano Ugolino Arsopachi built the Channels.
The Castle of Piombino remained a Pisan possession until Gerardo Appiani, after ceding Pisa to the Milanese Visconti, carved out an independent lordship centred on Piombino that included the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago: Elba, Pianosa, Montecristo, Capraia, Gorgona, and Giglio, for his family, who held the state intermittently until 1634.
In 1445, through his marriage with Caterina Appiani, Rinaldo Orsini acquired the Lordship of Piombino. In 1501–1503 the lordship came under the control of Cesare Borgia. After Cosimo I de' Medici had occupied the Lordship of Piombino in the course of the war against Siena, in 1553 and 1555 a French-Ottoman fleet attacked Piombino, but was pushed back. In 1557, a peace treaty reinstated the Appiani as rulers of Piombino, with the exception of Portoferraio, which was given to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and the area of Orbetello, which became part of the State of the Presidi under Spanish control.
In 1594, the Lordship of Piombino was raised to the status of a principality by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg, the first Prince of Piombino being Alessandro Appiani d'Aragona.
In 1634, the title was acquired by the Ludovisi family, whose member Niccolò I had married the heiress Polissena Appiani in 1632.
In 1708, the principality became ruled by the Boncompagni family with Antonio I as prince.
In 1801, Napoleon abolished the principality, Piombino and its lands being annexed by the Kingdom of Etruria; in 1809 they were given to Napoleon's sister, Elisa Baciocchi. After Napoleon's final defeat and the Congress of Vienna, the state of Piombino was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It became part of the unified Kingdom of Italy in 1860.
During World War II, in the days that followed the announcement of the Armistice of Cassibile, Piombino was the setting for one of the first episodes of the Italian resistance. [4] On 10 September 1943, during Operation Achse, a small German flotilla, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Karl-Wolf Albrand, tried to enter the harbour of Piombino but was denied access by the port authorities. [4] General Cesare Maria De Vecchi, in command of the Italian coastal forces (and a former Fascist Gerarca), commanded the port authorities to allow the German flotilla to enter, against the advice of Commander Amedeo Capuano, the Naval commander of the harbour. [4] [5] [6] Once they entered and landed, the German forces showed a hostile behaviour, and it became clear that their intent was to occupy the town; the local population asked for a resolved reaction by the Italian forces, threatening an insurrection, but the senior Italian commander, general Fortunato Perni, instead ordered his tanks to open fire on the civilians, to disperse the crowds; De Vecchi forbade any action against the Germans. [4] [5] [6] This however did not stop the protests; some junior officers, acting on their own initiative and against the orders (Perni and De Vecchi even tried to dismiss them for this), assumed command and started distributing weapons to the population, and civilian volunteers joined the Italian sailors and soldiers in the defense. [4] [5] [7] Battle broke out at 21:15 on 10 September, between the German landing forces (who aimed to occupy the town centre) and the Italian coastal batteries, tanks, and civilian population. [4] [5] [6] Italian tanks sank the German torpedo boat TA11; [8] [9] Italian artillery also sank seven Marinefährprahme, the péniches Mainz and Meise (another péniche, Karin, was scuttled at the harbour entrance as a blockship) and six Luftwaffe service boats (Fl.B.429, Fl.B.538, Fl.C.3046, Fl.C.3099, Fl.C.504 e Fl.C.528), and heavily damaged the torpedo boat TA 9 and the steamers Carbet and Capitano Sauro (formerly Italian). [10] Sauro and Carbet were scuttled because of the damage they had suffered. [10] [11] The German attack was repelled; by the dawn of 11 September, 120 Germans had been killed and about 200–300 captured, 120 of them wounded. [6] Italian casualties had been 4 killed (two sailors, one Guardia di Finanza brigadier, and one civilian) and a dozen wounded; [12] [13] four Italian submarine chasers (VAS 208, 214, 219 and 220) were also sunk during the fighting. [10] Later in the morning, however, De Vecchi ordered the prisoners to be released, and had their weapons given back to them. [4] [5] [14] New popular protests broke out, as the Italian units were disbanded and the senior commanders fled from the city; the divisional command surrendered Piombino to the Germans on 12 September, and the city was occupied. [4] [5] [6] Many of the sailors, soldiers and citizens who had fought in the battle of Piombino retreated to the surrounding woods and formed the first partisan formations in the area. [5] For the deeds of its citizens, the town received a Gold Medal for Military Valour from President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
Piombino is twinned with:
Piombino has schools, a gymnasium (middle school), lyceums (high school), churches, banks, parks and squares. In the locality of Punta Falcone is an astronomical observatory, created in 1976. East of Piombino, there was a power station with 1280 MW generation capacity with two chimneys, each 195 metres (640 ft) tall, but this is now being dismantled. West of Piombino, there is the start of the submarine power cable section to Corsica from HVDC SACOI.
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, 10 km (6.2 mi) from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, and the third largest island in Italy, after Sicily and Sardinia. It is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea about 50 km (30 mi) east of the French island of Corsica.
Pianosa is an island in the Tuscan Archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy. It is about 10.25 km2 (3.96 sq mi) in area, with a coastal perimeter of 26 km (16 mi).
Portoferraio is a town and comune in the province of Livorno, on the edge of the eponymous harbour of the island of Elba. It is the island's largest city. Because of its terrain, many of its buildings are situated on the slopes of a tiny hill bordered on three sides by the sea.
The province of Livorno or, traditionally, province of Leghorn, is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. It includes several islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, including Elba and Capraia. Its capital is the city of Livorno. When formed in 1861, the province included only Livorno and Elba Island. It was extended in 1925 with land from the provinces of Pisa and Genoa. It has an area of 1,211 square kilometres (468 sq mi) and a total population of 343,003 (2012). The province contains 19 comuni. The coastline of the area is known as "Costa degli Etruschi".
The Tuscan Archipelago is a chain of islands between the Ligurian Sea and Tyrrhenian Sea, west of Tuscany, Italy.
Populonia or Populonia Alta today is a frazione of the comune of Piombino. As of 2009 its population was 17. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia. Populonia is especially noteworthy for its Etruscan remains, including one of the main necropolis in Italy, discovered by Isidoro Falchi.
The State of the Presidi was a small territory on the Tuscan coast of Italy that existed between 1557 and 1801. It consisted of remnants of the former Republic of Siena—the five towns of Porto Ercole and Porto Santo Stefano on the promontory of Monte Argentario, as well as Orbetello, Talamone and Ansedonia—and their hinterland, along with the islet of Giannutri and the fortress of Porto Longone on the island of Elba.
The Lordship of Piombino, and after 1594 the Principality of Piombino, was a small state on the Italian peninsula centered on the town of Piombino and including part of the island of Elba. A vassal of the Kingdom of Naples associated with the State of the Presidios and a territory of the Holy Roman Empire formed from the remnants of the Republic of Pisa, it existed from 1399 to 1805, when it was merged into the Principality of Lucca and Piombino. In 1815 it was absorbed into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Cerbonius was a bishop of Populonia during the Barbarian invasions. Pope Gregory I praises him in Book XI of his Dialogues.
Jacopo III Appiano, VI Lord of Piombino was an Italian nobleman.
The 215th Coastal Division was an infantry division of the Royal Italian Army during World War II. Royal Italian Army coastal divisions were second line divisions formed with reservists and equipped with second rate materiel. They were often commanded by officers called out of retirement.
Baratti is a village frazione of the comune of Piombino in the Province of Livorno, with roughly only 15 residents.
Punta Ala is a frazione of the town of Castiglione della Pescaia, in the province of Grosseto, Tuscany, Italy. The small town with a population of 402 people lies at the bottom of the northern hillsides of the promontory of the same name. The coastal town is a popular summer seaside destination.
The Archaeological Museum of Populonia, opened in 2001 in the town of Piombino, Italy, contains artifacts from what was the ancient territory of Populonia during a period ranging from prehistory to late antiquity. The museum contains an active center of experimental archaeology with a focus on the processing of ceramics and stone.
The invasion of Elba, codenamed Operation Brassard, was part of the Italian campaign during the Second World War. The invasion was carried out from 17 to 19 June 1944 by Free French Forces supported by British and American ships and aircraft. According to the testimony of captured Germans, Allied activity had been observed on Corsica, thus the defenders were aware of the impending invasion 24 hours in advance. They resisted for two days before being given permission to withdraw to the mainland.
The archaeological area of Poggio del Molino is situated on the northern side of a headland that acts as a watershed between the beach of Rimigliano in the north, and the Gulf of Baratti in the south; to the northern border of the territory administered by the city of Piombino in the Italian Province of Livorno. The structure of Roman age spreads over a high plateau of about 20 m asl which dominates, in the west, the stretch of a sea between San Vincenzo and Elba and to the east, the metalliferous hills and plains of the Campiglia lagoon. The top of the hill is occupied by the beautiful Villa del Barone, built in 1923 by Baron Luigi De Stefano and Assunta Vanni Desideri, the daughter of Eugenio. From a paper of the 16th century, the "Bandita di Porto Baratti", and some archival documents we know that the Poggio owes its name to the mill which was a part of Torre Nuova, the building of coastal defense and a lookout built in the early sixteenth century by Cosimo I de' Medici, on the slopes of the promontory.
Isabella Appiani was Princess of Piombino from 1611 until 1628. Through her father, she was a descendant of Lorenzo de' Medici.
The flag of Elba was used during the period of stay of Napoleon Bonaparte as sovereign of the island of Elba, from 4 May 1814 to 26 February 1815. The flag, donated by Napoleon on his arrival on the island, was hoisted on the highest point of Portoferraio on the day of the landing of the emperor on the island. The original flag is kept in the Napoleon residence, Palazzina dei Mulini in Portoferraio. The meaning of the insignia chosen by the Emperor has long been, and continues to be, a matter of debate among historians.
The Appiani family was an Italian noble family, originally from Al Piano or Appiano, a now disappeared toponym identified with the modern La Pieve in the comune of Ponsacco. They held the principality of Piombino from the early 15th century until 1628.
The Campiglia Marittima-Piombino railway line, also known as the Cornia Valley Railway is an Italian railway line that connects the junction at Campiglia Marittima with the port town of Piombino.