The first document attesting to the castle is dated in 1075-1076. It was listed as one of many properties owned by the Aldobrandeschi family in the Maremma. It was included in the list of properties owned by the Guelf counts of Sovana-Pitigliano, when some of these lands were divided up by Ildebrandino VIII in the 1200s. The castle was destroyed by Siena’s Ghibellines in circa 1260, but after the subsequent victory of the Guelfi counts of Aldobrandeschi from Sovana, the castle was almost completely rebuilt. At the end of the 13th century, the castle passed into the ownership of another Guelfi aristocratic family. Again in 1328, the Sienese army destroyed the castle, lead by the commandant Guido Riccio da Fogliano. This event was immortalized in the famous fresco that still exists today in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico.

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The Castle of Montemassi

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Il castello di Casallia si trova nel territorio comunale di Castiglione della Pescaia, in località Le Case di Vetulonia, alcuni chilometri a valle dell'omonimo centro.

Storia
Il castello sorse su un piccolo pianoro attorno all'anno mille come struttura conventuale che, nel corso del tempo, venne abbandonata dai monaci e trasformata in struttura fortificata. L'originario complesso dipendeva dalla vicina abbazia di Sestinga e, in seguito all'abbandono, venne acquistato da signori locali che lo trasformarono adibendolo a loro residenza e accettando la sottomissione a Siena a partire dal 1331.

Con la caduta della Repubblica di Siena nella seconda metà del Cinquecento, il castello fu inglobato nel Granducato di Toscana, pur rimanendo sempre di proprietà privata.

Dal Settecento in poi, una serie di interventi di ristrutturazione andati avanti fino al XX secolo ha modificato in buona parte l'originario aspetto medievale.

Il complesso è costituito da un agglomerato di edifici abitativi che si dispongono attorno alla torre. Gran parte degli edifici sono il frutto di interventi di restauro avvenuti in epoche successive, pur avendo mantenuto le strutture murarie in pietra. Tuttavia, la loro particolare disposizione evidenzia le originarie funzioni di convento, lasciando facilmente immaginare la collocazione dell'antica chiesa e quali erano le strutture adibite a celle. L'edificio turriforme, che costituiva la torre campanaria dell'antico complesso religioso, è quello che ha mantenuto pressoché intatto l'originario aspetto di epoca medievale. Si presenta a sezione quadrangolare, con basamento a scarpa cordonato e pareti completamente rivestite in pietra, dove si aprono alcune finestre disposte su tre livelli al di sopra del cordone che delimita superiormente la base. La parte sommitale, coperta da un tetto a 4 spioventi poco pronunciati e rivestiti con i classici mattoni toscani, è il frutto di un rifacimento successivo che ha trasformato definitivamente l'antico campanile nell'attuale torre.

Castello di Casallia

Massa Marittima is a town and comune of the province of Grosseto, southern Tuscany, Italy, 49 km NNW of Grosseto.

There are mineral springs, mines of iron, mercury, lignite and copper, with foundries, ironworks and olive-oil mills. At Follonica, on the coast, are the furnaces in which are smelted the iron ore of Elba.
The territory around Massa Marittima was inhabited since prehistoric and proto-historical times, as evidenced by numerous finds dating from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. Etruscan settlements have been found in the area of Lake of Accesa and others dating from the 9th to the 5th century BC. Further proof of the existence of a settlement in the place where Massa Marittima is now comes from the Res Gestae by Ammianus Marcellinus, where a Massa Veternensis is cited as the birthplace of Constantius Gallus, nephew of Constantine; this town can be identified with the village of Massa Vecchia.

The name Massa appears for the first time in a document of the 10th century AD on a list of castles and courts sold to the cleric Ropprando by Lambert, Margrave of Tuscany, on April 18, 973 and subsequently repaired by Ermengarda, widow of Lambert, on February 15, 986. In the 11th century began the gradual transfer to Massa Marittima of the episcopal seat of Populonia, which had been looted by pirates and destroyed by the fleet of Nicetas, Prefect of Constantinople: a letter from Pope Alexander II to Bishop Tegrin of 1062 testifies the transfer of the bishopric to Massa. The city reached the peak of its splendor in the years when it became free commune (1255-1337), with a great urban expansion including buildings still visible today. From May 1, 1317, for a period of at least a year, the city also had its own currency. Massa fought alongside Siena in the battle of Montaperti (1260), and in three leagues (1276, 1307, 1319), after being subjugated by it in 1335.

The Sienese exploited the economic potential of the city, weakening it substantially. Plagues (the most severe in 1348 and 1400) and demographic downturn brought the city to a deep decadence, as well as the insalubriety of the place, since Siena did not perform any reclamation works in the whole Maremma. In 1554, during the war between the Republic of Siena and Duke Cosimo de' Medici, the Massa fortress capitulated, besieged by the Spaniards led by Carlo Gonzaga. On February 3, 1555 the city was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

During the Medici rule, the city experienced an initial attempt of recovery by Grand Duke Ferdinando I, but none of its successors whoed interest in the fate of Massa and Maremma: the only interventions were related to Valpiana's ironworks. Malaria hit the city and in 1737, when the Medici family disappeared, Massa counted only 527 inhabitants. In the 18th century, under the Lorraine dynasty, the city recovered. On March 18, 1766 Grand Duke Peter Leopold divided the Sienese state into two provinces: the upper province and the lower province. The lower province was divided into four captaincies: Grosseto, Arcidosso, Sovana and Massa. In the years between 1770 and 1790, several areas around the city were reclaimed. Leopold II, in the 19th century, continued the works of environmental and economic improvement: the Montebamboli lignite mine and that of alum in Montioni, were reopened and Massa returned to be a mining town.

Massa actively participated in the Risorgimento movements that led to the unification of Italy. Giuseppe Garibaldi himself went to Massa Marittima, and later became an honorary citizen; some young Massetans helped him to reach Cala Martina to embark at Porto Venere in September 1849. In 1923 Follonica, which had always been a hamlet of Massa Marittima, became an autonomous municipality. During World War II, Massa was a centre of partisan activities, and several of its citizens were killed by German and Italian troops in retaliation.

In the post-war period, Massa Marittima consolidated as a mining center until the last mine closed in 1994. Today, the city mainly lives in tourism, thanks to the presence of numerous works of art and the valorization of ancient crafts, mainly linked to its minerary past.

Massa Marittima 

The development of Paganico, and its passage from little village to walled town, is strictly connected to the beginning of the Sienese domination on this area of the Maremma, started in 1193. The fortified strongold, placed at the confluence between the rivers Ombrone and Lanzo, was constructed along the main road that from Siena, passing through S.Lorenzo a Merse and Forcole, leads to Roselle and Grosseto, giving origin to a real 'terra nuova', a settlement straight in the heart of the new southern territories of Siena.

To facilitate the economic growth, Paganico was free of fiscal impositions and taxes, so that at the time was named Castelfranco Paganico. To increase its importance in 1294 the town was made seat of an important market to destabilize the feudal economic system of the zone, controlled by the Ardengheschi family. In order to complete the elevation of its rank, since 1303 Paganico was seat of a vicariate. The damages provoked by the mercenary troops and the nasty air of the Maremma, at that time a malarial swampy region, caused, starting from the mid-13th century, the depopulation of Paganico. In 1494 the town was sacked from the troops of Carl VIII° then it passed under the Medicean control but only with the Grand-Ducal drainages, carried on in the 18th century, the area known an economic and social rebirth. 

The first walled enclosure of Paganico dates back to 1278 and was destroyed in the 1328 by Castruccio Castracani. Little after, in 1334, were erected the new town walls, under the direction of the architect Lando di Pietro, the same director of the works at the New Cathedral of Siena. These walls have the shape of an irregular quadrilateral, nearly trapezoidal, with squared towers on each curtain, four massive tower at the angles, four gates placed at the extremities of the two main road that crossed the town. Remnants of the machicolations are still partially visible. A tall keep or 'mastio' [called Cassero Senese, transformed in medicean age in a residential palace], flanks of the North gate, also known as 'Porta Senese'. The North and South Gates were equipped of a small barbican, now disappeared. The eastern front of the town walls with its Gate is nowadays totaly lost, together with some part of the northern, but all the other sides still surround the town, even though in some parts damaged. Intact are the 'Porta Grossetana' (or Franca) and the Porta Senese, both endowed with the characteristic pointed arch overlapping a lowered round arch surmounted by the black and white coat of arms of Siena. Partially intact is also the Porta Ovest. 

Inside the town is geometrically laid out, as all the planned settlements, with some beautiful medieval mansion with porches and, in the main square, the recently restored well and the Romanesque church of S.Michele, erected between 1296 and 1305, with two cycles of frescoes attributed to Biagio di Goro Ghezzi.

https://www.castellitoscani.com

Cassero of Paganico

La rocca aldobrandesca di Scarlino, nota anche come Rocca Pisana o Castello di Scarlino, è una fortificazione che si trova nella parte più alta del centro storico dell'omonimo comune della provincia di Grosseto. L'intero complesso, interamente rivestito in pietra, poggia su strutture molto più antiche che testimoniano l'origine alto medievale del castello.

Si trova in posizione dominante rispetto all'abitato, all'area meridionale delle Colline Metallifere grossetane e alla parte settentrionale della Maremma grossetana; si presenta sotto forma di imponenti ruderi recuperati grazie ai lavori di restauro effettuati negli ultimi due decenni del Novecento.

Il complesso attuale, risalente alla ristrutturazione tardo medievale, è costituito da tre torri angolari differenti tra loro, unite tra loro da una serie di cortine murarie di altezza diversa. La torre nord-orientale si presenta a sezione circolare, con una porta ad arco tondo; attorno ad essa si sviluppano i resti di cortine murarie che dovevano racchiudere, in passato, un bastione o un fortilizio. La torre sud-orientale presenta una sezione quadrata, mentre quella sud-occidentale è rettangolare e di altezza minore rispetto alle altre.
Storia
Il castello di Scarlino sorse come rocca nel corso del X secolo, per volere degli Aldobrandeschi, in un'area che aveva dato alla luce reperti di epoca preistorica.

Il complesso rimase di proprietà della famiglia Aldobrandeschi fino alla fine del XIII secolo, eccetto un breve e temporaneo passaggio alla famiglia Alberti di Mangona.

Tra la fine del Duecento e gli inizi del XIV secolo il castello fu ceduto ai Pisani che lo controllarono per quasi un secolo; proprio in questo periodo fu completamente ristrutturato il complesso.

Nel 1398 sia Scarlino che la sua rocca entrarono a far parte del Principato di Piombino, sotto la cui giurisdizione rimase fino al 1815, anno in cui entrò a far parte definitivamente del Granducato di Toscana.

Dopo un lungo periodo di degrado che ha compromesso una parte dell'antica fortificazione, sono stati condotti importanti interventi di restauro negli ultimi anni del XX secolo che hanno permesso di salvare il complesso, cercando di riportarlo agli antichi splendori.

Rocca aldobrandesca (Scarlino)

The Castle of Vicarello (Italian: Castello di Vicarello) is a medieval castle in Cinigiano, Tuscany, Italy.

It is located in the territory of the frazione of Poggi del Sasso.
History
The complex was built in the thirteenth century as part of the Republic of Siena, and became an important defensive structure. It was sold in the middle of the fifteenth century to the lords of the castle of Cotone, who also owned part of the nearby castle of Sabatina. During the Renaissance period, redevelopment work was carried out that led to the overlapping of newer stylistic elements with the existing medieval ones. In the mid-sixteenth century, the castle became part of the territory administered by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and remained in private ownership. Restorations were completed at the end of the twentieth century.

Current
The castle is currently operated as a hotel and farm. One of the two original stone square towers is well-preserved. The buildings that make up the complex are organized around an inner courtyard, which is accessed through an archway; the walls are completely covered in stone. Not far from the castle was an old church, now deconsecrated and used as a private residence, which is recognizable by its bell tower.