SESTO FIORENTINO

'Sesto Fiorentino' is a municipality (''comune'') in the province of Firenze, Tuscany, Italy. It has c. 46,700 inhabitants.

Contents

History

Main sights

External links

History

The oldest known human settlement in the area dates from the Mesolithic (c. 9,000 years ago). The Etruscan presence is known from the 7th century BC, but the town proper was created by the Romans as ''Sextus ab urbe lapis'' ("Sixth mile from the Town Milestone"). The first churches were built in the early Middle Ages, among which the most important became the Pieve of San Martino. Sesto Fiorentino was subject to the bishop of Florence. Later it was under the Florentine Republic, which dried the plain and boosted the area's economy starting from the Renaissance age.
Here, in 1735, Marquis Carlo Ginori founded one of the first porcelain plants in Europe, the Manifattura di Doccia. Sesto Fiorentino was annexed by plebiscite to the newly unified Kingdom of Italy in 1860. The town was a protagonist of workers struggle in the late 19th century, and in 1897 it elected the second socialist member ever of the Italian Parliament, Giuseppe Pescetti. In 1899 it was the first town in Tuscany to have a socialist mayor.

Main sights

★ ''Pieve di San Martino'' (church of St. Martin), known from around the year 1000. The interior has a nave and two aisles, the inner part dating from the 12th century. On the high altar is a ''Crucifix'' by Agnolo Gaddi'' (1390); notable are also a ''Circumcision'' by Jacopo Vignali and a ''Four Saints'' by Santi di Tito.

★ ''Palazzo Pretorio'' (1477).

★ ''Santa Maria a Quinto'', mentioned in the 11th century but rebuilt in the 18th century. It houses a notable triptych by Spinello Aretino and ''Annunciation'' from 1410.

★ ''Villa Guicciardini Corsi Salviati''

★ ''Villa Paolina''

★ ''Villa Villoresi''.

★ Park of Villa Gamba, an English-style garden built in 1853.

★ Etruscan findings include the ''Tomba della Montagnola'' (7th century BC), the ''Tomba della Mula'' and the Necropolis of Palastreto (8th-6th centuries BC).

External links

★ Official website