Volterra

 ( Www.comune.volterra.pi.it Official Website ) 

Volterra (; Latin: Volaterrae) is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Ancient Rome, and Medieval periods.

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History Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri or Vlathri

D. H. Lawrence (2013). 9781447487821, Read Books Limited. . ISBN 9781447487821

and to the Romans as Volaterrae,

(2002). 9780521007016, Cambridge University Press. . ISBN 9780521007016

is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy. The site is believed to have been continuously inhabited as a city since at least the end of the 8th century BC.

(2025). 9780310225737, Harper Collins. . ISBN 9780310225737

DK (2014). 9781409353980, Dorling Kindersley Limited. . ISBN 9781409353980

Insight Guides (2015). 9781780055435, APA. . ISBN 9781780055435

The town was a Bronze Age settlement of the Proto-Villanovan culture.

Sybille Haynes (2025). 9780892366002, Getty Trust Publications. ISBN 9780892366002

It became an important Etruscan centre as one of the "twelve cities" of the Etruscan League.

Alan Norman Bold (1976). 9780521098403, CUP Archive. . ISBN 9780521098403

Helle Damgaard Andersen (1997). 9788772894126, Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 9788772894126

It was allied to Rome at the end of the 3rd century BC and became a municipium. The wealthy Caecinia gens family lived here and Gaius Caecina Largus and the eminent Aulus Caecina Severus (consul 2–1 BC) built the theatre and probably other monuments.F. Sear 2006, p. 13. Other important families here were the Persii and the Laelii.A. Furiesi, pp. 73–76. Aulus Caecina was appointed propraetor of Moesia by 4 AD and later in charge of several legions on the lower Rhine after 14 AD where he led them ably, routing the army of Arminius who had destroyed three Roman legions. He was eulogised by the chroniclers for his exploits and on his return to Rome he was awarded triumph honours.

The city was a bishop's residence in the 5th century,

and its episcopal power was affirmed during the 12th century. With the decline of the episcopate and the discovery of local alum deposits, Volterra became a place of interest of the Republic of Florence, whose forces conquered Volterra.

Peter Hinze (2025). 9783886187737, Hunter Publishing, Inc. . ISBN 9783886187737

Florentine rule was not always popular, and opposition occasionally broke into rebellion. On 18 June 1472, during the so-called Allumiere War between Volterra and Florence in which, Federico da Montefeltro, allowed his soldiers to pillage Volterra and to commit rape and murder of its citizens, despite the town's surrender on 16 June after a 25-day siege.Cecil H. Clough, The Duchy of Urbino in the Renaissance (Variorum Reprints, 1981) p.136 The incident caused the emigration of many wealthy families and the appropriation of their goods. These rebellions were put down by Florence, notably on June 18, 1472, when Florentine soldiers under the command of

When the Republic of Florence fell in 1530, Volterra came under the control of the Medici family and later followed the history of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

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Climate

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Culture The main events that take place during the year in Volterra are

• Volterra gusto
  Lonely Planet (2014). 9782816147278, Place Des Editeurs. . ISBN 9782816147278
• Volterra arte
• Volterra teatro
  (2010). 9781443821841, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. . ISBN 9781443821841

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Main sights

• Roman Theatre of Volterra, 1st century BC, excavated in the 1950s
  Frank Sear (2006). 9780198144694, OUP Oxford. . ISBN 9780198144694
  Rick Steves (2007). 9781566918541, Avalon Travel. . ISBN 9781566918541
• /ref>Elena Sorge, Valeria d’Aquino, L’anfiteatro che non c’era. Storia di una scoperta, GIOCHI E SPETTACOLI NEL MONDO ANTICO

problematiche e nuove scoperte, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, 24 Marzo 2018, Reggio Emilia (RE) a cura di Paolo Storchi e Gianluca Mete

• Piazza dei Priori, the main square, a fine example of medieval Tuscan town squares
  (1995). 9780679029854, Fodor's Travel Publications. . ISBN 9780679029854
  (2025). 9788862081177, Damiani. . ISBN 9788862081177
• Palazzo dei Priori: town hall on main piazza, begun in 1208 and finished in 1257
  (2025). 9788871452630, Nuova Immagine. . ISBN 9788871452630
  Inc. Fodor's Travel Publications (2025). 9781400011087, Fodor's. . ISBN 9781400011087
  (2025). 9780717201396, Scholastic Library Pub.. . ISBN 9780717201396
• Pinacoteca e museo civico di Volterra: Art Museum housed in Palazzo Minucci-Solaini.
  (2025). 9788877817754, Pacini. . ISBN 9788877817754
  Founded in 1905,
  (2025). 9788871793023, F. Motta. . ISBN 9788871793023
  (1997). 9788836509485, Touring Editore. . ISBN 9788836509485
  the gallery consists mostly of works by Tuscan artists from 14th to 17th centuries.
  Michelin Travel Publications (2025). 9782060000107, Michelin Travel Publications. . ISBN 9782060000107
  Includes a Deposition by Rosso Fiorentino.
  Anna Benvenuti Papi (1999). 9788804467731, Mondadori. . ISBN 9788804467731
  (1999). 9780312194888, St. Martin's Press. . ISBN 9780312194888
• Etruscan Acropolis and Roman Cistern. The acropolis on the citadel dates to the 8th century B.C., while the cistern is from the 1st century B.C.
• Volterra Cathedral. It was enlarged in the 13th century after an earthquake. It houses a ciborium and some angels by Mino da Fiesole, a notable wood Deposition (1228), a masterwork of Romanesque sculpture and the Sacrament Chapel, with paintings by Santi di Tito, Giovanni Balducci and Agostino Veracini. In the center of the vault are fragments of an Eternal Father by Niccolò Circignani. Also noteworthy is the Addolorata Chapel, with a terracotta group attributed to Andrea della Robbia and a fresco of Riding Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli. In the nearby chapel, dedicated to the Most Holy Name of Jesus, is a table with Christ's monogram, allegedly painted by Bernardino of Siena. The rectangular bell tower is from 1493.
• Volterra Baptistery or Baptistery of San Giovanni, built in the second half of the 13th century.
• Fortezza Medicea (Medicean Fortress),
  (2014). 9781925271652, Australian eBook Publisher. . ISBN 9781925271652
  built in the 1470s,
  (2025). 9781860111136, New Holland Publishers. . ISBN 9781860111136
  now a prison
  (2014). 9781443864510, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. . ISBN 9781443864510
  housing the noted restaurant, Fortezza Medicea restaurant.
• Guarnacci Etruscan Museum,
  Gabriele Cateni (2025). 9788877816221, Pacini. . ISBN 9788877816221
  with thousands of funeral urns dating back to the Hellenistic and Archaic periods.
  The J. Paul Getty Museum (1981). 9780892360321, Getty Publications. . ISBN 9780892360321
  Main attractions are the bronze statuette "Ombra della sera" (),
  (1994). 9780844290553, Passport Books. . ISBN 9780844290553
  and the sculpted effigy, "Urna degli Sposi" () of an Etruscan couple in terra cotta.
  Rick Steves (2015). 9781631212048, Avalon Travel Publishing. . ISBN 9781631212048
  (2025). 9788865244005, ATS Italia Editrice. . ISBN 9788865244005
  (1970). 9788847617940, Casa Editrice Bonechi. . ISBN 9788847617940
  Touring Club of Italy (2025). 9788836532971, Touring Editore. . ISBN 9788836532971
• The Etruscan , including the well-preserved (3rd-2nd centuries BC),
  Henry James (1995). 9781101173862, Penguin Publishing Group. . ISBN 9781101173862
  and gates.
  Luisa Banti (1973). 9780520019102, University of California Press. . ISBN 9780520019102
• The Medici , outside the city, in direction of Lajatico
  (2025). 9788809029958, Giunti Editore. . ISBN 9788809029958
• There are excavations of Etruscan in the Valle Bona area.
• Sant'Alessandro, Romanesque Roman Catholic church.
• Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, founded in 1888. Closed in 1978, it was reopened for public and will be once more used for psychiatric purposes.
• Palazzo Inghirami, Volterra

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Transport Volterra has a station on the , called "Volterra Saline – Pomarance" due to its position, in the frazione of Saline di Volterra.

Emma Jones (2004). 9781588433992, Hunter Publishing, Inc. . ISBN 9781588433992

Gillian Price (2012). 9781849656726, Cicerone Press Limited. . ISBN 9781849656726

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Notable people

• Persius (34–62), the Roman satirist of Etruscan stock
• Pope Linus, who, according to the Liber Pontificalis, was born in Volterra, and was the successor to Saint Peter
• Lucius Petronius Taurus Volusianus, Roman consul with the Emperor Gallienus in AD 261 and urban prefect in AD 267–268
• Meshullam da Volterra (d. 1508), an Italian-Jewish businessman who traveled to the Land of Israel and surrounding Jewish communities. His works provide concise and important details about the nature and conditions of Ottoman Jews.
• Daniele da Volterra (1509–1566), Mannerist painter
• The poet Jacopo da Leona, a judge at Volterra in the 13th century
• The Maffei family of Volterra produced the apostolic Secretary Gherardo Maffei and his three sons: the eldest Antonio Maffei, who was one of the assassins in the Pazzi Conspiracy against the Medici in 1478; second the humanist Raffaello Maffei called "Volterrano" who also served in the Curia; and youngest Mario Maffei, who was also a scholar and followed his father in the curia.
• Giuseppe Bessi (1857–1922), sculptor
• Emilio Fiaschi (1858–1941), sculptor

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In popular culture

• Volterra features in , a poem by Lord Macaulay.
  David Gilmour (2011). 9780141929897, Penguin Books Limited. . ISBN 9780141929897
  James Bentley (1988). 9780140466836, Penguin. . ISBN 9780140466836
• Linda Proud's A Tabernacle for the Sun (2005), the first volume of The Botticelli Trilogy, begins with the sack of Volterra in 1472. Volterra is the ancestral home of the Maffei family and the events of 1472 lead directly to the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478. The protagonist of the novel is Tommaso de' Maffei, half brother of one of the conspirators.
• Volterra is an important location in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. In the books, Volterra is home to the Volturi, a clan of rich, regal, powerful ancient vampires, who essentially act as the rulers of the world's vampire population. (However, the relevant scenes from the were shot in Montepulciano.)
• Volterra is the site of Stendhal's famously disastrous encounter in 1819 with his beloved Countess Mathilde Dembowska: she recognised him there, despite his disguise of new clothes and green glasses, and was furious. This is the central incident in his book .
  F. C. Green (2011). 9781107600720, Cambridge University Press. . ISBN 9781107600720
  David Wakefield (1984). 9780853900276, Newstead Press. . ISBN 9780853900276
• Volterra is mentioned repeatedly in British author Dudley Pope's Lord Ramage historical nautical series. Gianna, the Marchesa of Volterra and the fictional ruler of the area, features in the first twelve books of the eighteen-book series. The books chart the progress and career of Ramage during the Napoleonic wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, providing readers with well-scripted articulate details of life aboard sailing vessels and conditions at sea of that time.
  Sue Parrill (2009). 9780786458035, McFarland. . ISBN 9780786458035
  Tom Grundner (2007). 9781934757055, Fireship Press. . ISBN 9781934757055
• Volterra is the site where the novel Chimaira by the Italian author Valerio Massimo Manfredi takes place.
• Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Ancient Curse is also set in Volterra, where a statue called 'The Shade of Twilight' is stolen from the Volterra museum.
• Volterra is featured in Jhumpa Lahiri's 2008 collection of short stories Unaccustomed Earth. It is where Hema and Kaushik, the protagonists of the final short story "Going Ashore," travel before they part.
  Anjali Pandey (2016). 9781137340368, Palgrave Macmillan UK. . ISBN 9781137340368
• Volterra is featured in Luchino Visconti's 1965 film Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa, released as Sandra (Of a Thousand Delights) in the United States and as Of These Thousand Pleasures in the UK.
  Henry Bacon (1998). 9780521599603, Cambridge University Press. . ISBN 9780521599603
• Volterra's scenery is used for Central City in the 2017 film Fullmetal Alchemist (film) directed by Fumihiko Sori.
• The 2016 video game The Town of Light is set in a fictionalized version of the notorious Volterra Psychiatric Hospital.
• "Volaterrae" is the name given by Dan and Una to their secret place in Far Wood in Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill. They named it from the verse in Lord Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome:

::From lordly Volaterrae,

::Where scowls the far-famed hold

::Piled by the hands of giants

::For Godlike Kings of old.

• Volterra and its relationship with Medici Florence features in the 2018 second season of .

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Twin cities

Volterra is twinned with:

• Mende, France
• Wunsiedel, Germany
• Sandomierz, Poland

Notes

Bibliography

• Bell, Sinclair and Alexandra A. Carpino, eds. (2016) A Companion to the Etruscans. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
• Haynes, Sybille (2000) Etruscan civilization: A cultural history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
• Pallottino, Massimo (1978) The Etruscans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Sprenger, Maia, and Bartoloni, Gilda (1983) The Etruscans: Their history, art and architecture. Translated by Robert E. Wolf. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
• Turfa, Jean MacIntosh, ed. (2013) The Etruscan World. Routledge Worlds. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

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External links

Categories: Www.comune.volterra.pi.it Official Website, Cities And Towns In Tuscany, Hilltowns In Tuscany, Villanovan Culture

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