Rosignano_Mar_storia


	English version
ROSIGNANO MARITTIMO
The name Rosignano comes from the Roman Rasinii family who is believed to have owned some properties in this area. We have news that date back to the 8th century, because Rasinianus is mentioned in some documents that mention properties of rich families from Lucca. The first document where we can find Rosignano dates back to 762 , in the Lombard age. This is a contract between the Bishop of Lucca and his nephew about the division of territories near Rosignano along the river Fine . We know there was a " room " - a Lombard word - that is a two storey house with olive grove, vineyard and a cork oak wood, around 783. Almost one century and a half of darkness and in 1020 we have news of two monasteries : the one of Saint Felice situated at vada and the one of Saint Quirico situated at Moxi ( Le Badie ). Half a century later, in 1071, the castle of Rosignano, that dominates the coast and the mouth of the river Fine from above, is mentioned. After the 10th century Rosignano passes to the Tuscan Marquisate and some decades later it passes to Pisa. Pisa Church comes in possession of large properties near Rosignano through hereditary legacies, exchanges and acquisitions, but it will be above all the archbishop Ruggero of Pisa that will be able to take over some public rights practiced by the marquises, rights that will be confirmed to the bishop from emperor Corrado II in 1139. In 1371 Pisa authorizes the fortification of the Castle, so some lodgings for the troops and the keeps were built. The Gherardesca Counts had possessions on the territory too. The rural commune of Rosignano is also mentioned in the later documentation and it will maintain the dignity of community legally recognized for all the Middle Ages and the Modern age, changing together with the change of the central institutions, first the ones of Pisa state , then the ones of the Florentine state and finally of ones of Tuscan Grand duchy. Little by little Pisa extends its dominion and affirms new criteria about the organization of the territory: during the 13th century Rosignano becomes one of the captaincies of Pisa Commune, that is the administrative areas for the management of the subdued rural territory. In 1406 the Florentine domination took the place of the one from Pisa and it soon assumed oppressive characteristics. Rosignano changes from Pisan captaincy to the jurisdiction of a podestà "of Rosignano " (and no more Rosignano and Vada). The captains from Pisa are replaced by Florentine rulers with greater political and juridical competences. For thirty years , under the rule of Florence , Rosignano knows a period of hard political stability, until the opportunity to rebel to the Florentines arises. In 1431 Rosignano and other communes in the Valley of the river Fine take advantage of the passage of the troops of Niccolò Piccinino from of the Milan Dukedom under the rule of Philip Maria Visconti, who was in war with Florence. The castles rise up, but in 1433 they have already been all reconquered and in the case of Rosignano and Vada they were razed to the ground (we don't know to what extense). Rosignano, is deprived of the rank of administrative chief town and the office of the podestà is abolished. The Fine and the Cecina Valleys are divided between Lari and Peccioli. This meant loss of political power and decrese of the military importance of its castle in addition to a loss of control on the surrounding territory. Subdued by the Florentine power, but not tamed , at the end of the century, when Charles VIII invaded Italy, Pisa rebelled against the Florentines and the castle is once more in front line. In 1494 when the Medicean supremacy collapsed, Pisa and its country declared themselves independent and this fervour spread soon in the Cecina and Fine Valleys. The castles of Castellina, Riparbella and Rosignano rose up in January 1495 and immediately the Pisans sent some soldiers to prevent the Florentines to take the castles back. The struggle was fierce and lasted until 1507, when the Florentines who had gathered at Casacce, a place between Rosignano and S. Luce, under the command of the High Commissioner Nicolò Machiavelli, burnt all the wheat and the fodders at Rosignano and devastated the valley of the river Fine. As a consequence the Florentines reconquered Pisa once and for all in 1509, and they conquered Rosignano as well. Since 1434 Florence had become a Signory under the rule of the Medici family .They often came to Rosignano, particularly Lorenzo il Magnifico and his son Piero lived in the castle of Rosignano to hunt wild boars and roe deer which were numerous in the woods and the marsh near Vada. In July 1530 Francesco Ferrucci also stopped at Rosignano with his troops, few days before his heroic sacrifice at Gavinana. After this phase the process of constitution of the regional state continued without further jolts. In the first half the 16th century the village had assumed considerable dimensions , but since the fortress had been destroyed about a century before and there existed only the external walls of the castle to protect the dwellings, it was exposed to raids and attacks. The greatest danger in this first half of the 16th century consisted in the Moors who raided the Tyrrhenian coasts with rapid and sudden attacks. Local toponyms such as " Saracino ", " Barbaresco " and others, are not accidental, but precise historical references. For this reason in 1562 Duke Cosimo ordered to rebuild the fortress of Rosignano and the tower of Castiglioncello , while the one of Vada had existed since 1279. The Lorena family took the place of the Medici Family in the person of Francesco II, who later became emperor of Austria. Pietro Leopoldo succeeded him and in 1772 he reformed the courts maintaining at Rosignano the judge with the title of podestà, also if with more limited jurisdiction. During the Napoleonic period (1808-1814) Rosignano became Mairie and belonged first to the Kingdom of Etruria and then to the empire. After the defeat of Napoleone, Leopoldo II became Grand duke. In 1860, when Italy became a monarchy, Rosignano, assigned to Pisa province was chief town of the District which included the communes of Orciano, Castellina and Riparbella. The epithet of Maritime goes back to 1862 to distinguish the village from Rosignano Monferrato in province of Alexandria. In the 20th century the first important realizations were carried out, such as the railroad from Livorno to Vada in 1910 and the first big industry on the territory in 1912. In 1925 the commune was assigned to Livorno province also because of the explicit will of the people. The death toll of the passage of the front during the second world war was tragic and heavy.