Montaione

JERUSALEM OF TUSCANY

The municipality of Montaione is located at a distance from the main Tuscan towns of Florence, Pisa, Siena and Lucca, just a short distance from the famous Via Francigena, between the valleys of Elsa and Era.

The discovery of numerous Etruscan-Roman colonies testify the ancient origins of Montaione which since 1257 became common gravitating mostly into the orbit of Florence, to which he was subjected in 1369. From the fourteenth century developed in the art glass, the same Grand Duke ordered masters to teach the art to countrymen. A document, which dates back to 1279, mentions the presence of furnaces in the territory of Montaione in the manufacture of glassware and glassware. In the historic center, which preserves the structure of medieval castle, lies the Palazzo Pretorio whose façade can still be seen the armorial bearings of the ancients.

A few kilometers from the Center is the Gerusalemme di San Vivaldo, in this place lived the friar Vivaldo Stricchi who in the fourteenth century retired to life as a hermit dwelling in the hollow trunk of a chestnut tree. Here between 1500 and 1515, Fra Tommaso of Florence built a complex of chapels and temples, decorated with polychrome terracotta, willing to play on a smaller scale plan of Jerusalem from the 15th century.

 

Traditions and typical products

Tuscany has a large amount of local products much to gain recognition as a Città del pane, Città del Tartufo e Città dell’olio.

Today there is also a thriving craft ranging from pottery to shred onyx and gemstone jewelry, art derived from the Renaissance tradition of Florentine mosaic and local processing of a particular type of onyx (etoca).

 

 

Photo Credits [visitmontaione.com]