La torre Belforti e il Sistema difensivo di Montecatini Val di Cecina

Abstract

[EN] The small village of Montecatini Val di Cecina, capital of one of the largest municipalities in the province of Pisa is perched at an altitude of approx. 420m above sea level and located on one of the last southern offshoots of the Pisan hills. The Montecatini’s first attestation, subject to the civil jurisdiction of the bishop of Volterra, important city of Etruscan origin, dates back to the end of XI century. Montecatini is mentioned as a castle only in May 1225, under the bishopric of Pagano Pannocchieschi. The Belforti family, with the taking of power in Volterra in 1340 and especially following the Filippo’s appointment on the episcopal chair, affirms itself in Montecatini entrusting the construction of the imposing tower to the stone master Ghetto da Buriano, in 1354, on the remains of an earlier structure. To the same, we owe the strengthening of the defensive wall system of the castle and, in the following year, the construction of a residential building. The tower of 30m approx. and the keep, of the latter remain today only a few traces, represent the essential component of the defensive system of the castle, of which today are still visible the towers with circular section. Towards the middle of the 14th century the domain of Montecatini was taken away from the Belforti family and handed over by the Florentines to the town of Volterra until, in 1472, it was subjected to the Florentine republic together with its countryside. At the end of the 60’s the tower was bought by Emilio Jesi, entrepreneur and important art collector (whose collection was donated to the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan), who made the restoration project of the illustrious architect Franco Albini. The main objective of the work presented is to return, also graphically, new reconstructive hypotheses of the fortified system of Montecatini Val di Cecina, on the basis of the acquisitions resulting from the profitable overlap between the archival documentation and the results of the survey.