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SOME HISTORY
The Romans defeated the Etruscan, Umbran and Celtic civilisations
which populated the Tuscan-Romagnolan Apennine since some centuries.
But the Casentino identity was traced during the Middle Ages when
the hermitages and the monasteries were built and which still today
plot the landscape.
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It
is thanks to the monks of Camaldoli who wrote down the first documents
that we have the possibility to make a reconstruction of the history
of this area. When the Florentines defeated the powerful Guidi family,
the influence of the Republic grow and reached the area which until
then had been governed by the monks. A border area with Tuscan and
Papal territories, the Tuscan-Romagnolan Apennine was the favourite
shelter for thieves and political refugees until the 18th century,
when Tuscany became part of the Lorena family who decided to abolish
the church properties and enhance the communications in this strategic
area. The input from the trade and the activities connected to the
transportation lasted until the unification of Italy.
One of the most famous pages of the Italian history was written
here in these forests, the Partisan resistance during WWII. The balanced
relationship between man and environment dates back to the period
when the management of the forests was carried out by the Camaldolesian
monks. The precious white fir-tree wood supplied the arsenals of Leghorn
and Pisa, but also the big works of religious architecture which were
built in Florence, such as the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore. Less
accurate was the policy carried out by the Lorena family, who exploited
the forests during the demographic boom. Leopoldo II, Grand Duke of
Tuscany inherited this sad reality but wisely changed it by commissioning
the Bohemian forest inspector, Karl Simon, to safeguard the natural
heritage of the Casentino. With skills and passion, Simon obtained
the wished outcome and left a flourishing forest to the Italian public
heritage in 1914. Today the forests are protected by the Ente Parco
Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi.
A big part of the monasteries and castles built in the Middle
Ages where destroyed by the frequent earthquakes, but there are still
many buildings left from the past which attract Italian and foreign
tourists. Do not miss a visit to the Franciscan Sanctuary della Verna,
the monastery and the hermitage of Camaldoli, which are real masterpieces
of religious architecture. The valleys of the Casentino are plotted
with old churches in the countryside, while the palaces and the religious
buildings in the bigger towns preserve many artworks which is the
fruit of meeting between the Tuscan, Lombard and Romagnolan schools.
It is also nice to discover the cottages, mills, bridges, tabernacles
which are lined along the mule-tracks in the countryside. |
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