Volterra, m. 545 s.l.ms., you/he/she has abandoned on a hilly buttress in a landscape characterized by the breakthrough of the clays plioceniche (the biancanes), that dominates an immense territory delimited by the thick one of the Montevaso and from the cords of the Cornocchis and the Hills Metallifere. The privileged position of the hill, sets to the confluence of the Val of Cecina and the Val of it was, the natural difendibilità of the place, the environmental characteristics and the mining resources of the territory, favored since the period Neolitico the first human installations, documented by the many lithic finds recovered in the volterrano. The city knew the culture Villanoviana, replaced in the VII sec. to.C. from the Civilization Etrusca.

The Etruschis (or Tyrrenoi, as you/they had called from the Greek) in the century VII to.C., concluding the process of aggregation among the various installations of the hill volterrano, they founded to the city of Velathri, that became head of one of the twelve lucumonies that formed the nation etrusca between You and IV century to.C.; his/her population, in that period, you/he/she has been esteemed around 25.000 inhabitants. And' of this period the construction of the great surrounded building that encircled an inhabited area that was extended around the acropolis, situated on the plan of Castle. The perimeter of the boundaries, of over seven kilometers, it allows to suppose that together with the real inhabited area, it also contained terrestrial to pasture and cultivated, able to assure the necessary feeding in case of prolonged sieges. Velathri reached to check a territory that extended him from the river it Weighs to the Tyrrhenian sea and from the Arno to the basin of the river Cornia, dominating Populonia, the Elba, Corsica and the whole coast Tirrenica, from Lead up to the mouths of the Thin one, pushing himself/herself/itself to north up to Luni and to east up to the dominoes of Arezzo and Closed. The influence of Volterra arrived, straight, in some zones of Sardinia and the Valley Padana. The wealth of Velathri, over that on a flourishing economy type agricultural, it founded him upon a notable industrial and merchant activity. Industrial activity founded him, particularly, on the mining resources of the Hills Metallifere and of the island in Elba, that merchant was favorite from the control of the ports of a good part of the coast Tirrenica; among these Goes (Vada Volaterrae) and Pupluna (the actual Populonia). You thinks, straight, that the blowpipes boraciferi of Larderello was already exploited. The great extension of the territory and the variety of the available resources allowed the city to withstand better than the others the pressure of the Romans; only toward 260 to.C., last among the great cities etrusche, Velathri entered to belong to the italic confederation.


To the beginnings of the III sec., the decisive clash of the lake Vadimone (283 to. C.) it marked the definitive renouncement of the people of the Etruria to the struggle against Rome: also Volterra subdued him to the Romans toward 260 to.C., it entered to belong to the italic confederation, .con the name of Volaterrae. From a footstep of Tito Livio, related to the provisionings that the army of Scipione received from some cities etrusche, in 205 to.C., during the second war punica, knows that Volterra contributed with lumbers for the ships and mainly with wheat: produced that implies an agricultural activity type extensive. In 90 to.C. with the Lex Julia de Civitate of Giulio Cesare, Volterra got the Roman citizen, it was enrolled to the tribe Sabatina and it became a florid town hall whose supreme elective judges are found mentioned in various registrations. Bursted the civil war, Volterra followed the fates of the faction of Mario and sustained for two years (82 - 80 to.C.) a long siege against Silla, until, exhausted, owed surrender; the consequences of the defeat were serious, but not irreparable. Both thanks to the action Cicero's moderator, both to the great economic power and the relationships with personality of I detach some Roman political life of some of the greatest families volterrane, the city he/she succeeded in overcoming the ugly moment, consequent to the siege and the retaliations of the sympathizers of Silla. One among the most important families are that of the Caecinaes that, often they are in positions of prestige, as To. Caecinae Severus, consul suffectus, to which the dedication of the Roman theater of Vallebona is owed. With the territorial arrangement of August, Volterra constituted one of the town hall of the VII region, the Etruria. In the V sec. d.C., to the first barbaric invasions the city, that was structured in forms castrensi in the meantime, was already Episcopalian center, to head of a diocese that traced the confinements of the Roman municipium and the lucumonia etrusca, and it constituted one of the areas ecclesiastical more important than the Tuscia.


During the barbaric invasions Volterra was subdued before from the Erulis, then from the Goths, and subsequently it entertained a Byzantine garrison, even if, it seems, that Volterra has not directly been attacked never by these invasions, because then impregnable. In epoch longobarda, whose dominion lasted around two centuries, the city became center of a gastaldato, but its territory began to be reduced in consistent way, must abdicate the control of all the coastal zones. And' of this period the arrival to Volterra of the Correct Bishop, then Saint and patron of the City, that together with Clemente and Ottaviano, then Saints also them, him made benemerito of the city. The four granted markets from the Carolingian emperors, in concomitance with as many religious parties, dress again great importance for the city, being markets franchi, exempt from excises, and they denote the beginning of the economic awakening, of which some glint appears in the IX century, that Volterra brings to be pole of religious, social and economic affairs for the whole zone. After the year 1000, the increase of the population for the end of the barbaric invasions and the conflicts among Berengario 1°, king of Italy and Alberto, marquis of Tuscany, during which the city was almost entirely devastated, favored the riedificazione that realized in the immediate proximities of the ancient Acropolis the constitutive nucleus of the actual urban plant. In the same epoch, because of the decisive fracture among the feudal gentlemen, masters of the countries and the Bishop that, benefiting himself/herself/itself of the privileges granted by the Emperors, it practiced his/her power in the city, the progressive separation is recorded between the city and the country. Toward halves the XII century, during the conflict among these two powers, a political event is delineated that he showed of fundamental importance for the history of Italy: the birth of the free Commune. After long struggles with the Bishop, in the 1193 Volterra his/her first Podestà names. And' in this period that begins to take on a shape the suburb that we know. The first important initiative is the construction of the new surrounded building, that goes to replace that etrusca, too much vast in comparison to the inhabited area that he went shaping, rather meeting place in comparison to that etrusco. Contemporary of the jobs to the boundaries it is the construction of the building of the People, then the Prior Building, initiated in 1208 from teacher Riccardo, finished in the 1257 bottom the Podestà Bonaccorso Adimari and the setup of the Plaza of the Prior, him ex "pratus episcopatus." Of the same period I am the construction of the Cathedral and the Baptistery.


At the end of the XIII century, the conflicts between Guelfi and Ghibellini concluded him with the victory of the Guelfis that you/they established a Dominion with Ottaviano Belforti. The government of the family thin Belforti tragically in 1361, with the decapitation of one of his/her members, accused of having sold the city to Pisa. This event, however, constituted in bigger disaster for Volterra, because the Florentines, come by friends to free the city from the tyranny, they pretended the control of the Fortress, his/her own men imposed and they did yes that the republic volterrana, despite the formal independence it became subject of Florence. Various attempts of revolt were repressed in the blood, up to when he reached the sack of Volterra, in 1472 to work of the militias of the Duke of Montefeltro. Integrated in the Florentine state, the city was submitted to a hard treatment of that the emigration provoked a lot of among the wealthiest families. In the XV century is had the construction of the Convent of St. Girolamo, with the probable presence of Michelozzo and the restructuring of the actual Episcopalian Building, from Anthony from St. Rooster, but the most concrete sign of the dominion in Florence is the construction of the Fortitude of the "Mastio", wanted by Lawrence the Magnificent one to check the volterranis and Siena. To halves the XVI century Volterra counted as soon as 2000 inhabitants, less than a tenth in comparison to the period etrusco, and toward the end of the century a further diminution of the inhabitants is signalled, particularly of the noble families, that move him in their villas in the country. In the 1530 Volterra it still rebels him to the Florentines, but you/he/she is again conquered and ransacked by Francis Ferrucci, that then must suffer in turn a siege in the city; from this moment Volterra begins his/her inexorable decline that extends him up to the whole XVIII century. Volterra becomes an agricultural center and survives to herself up to when, at the end of 1700, Marcello Inghirami brings the workmanship of the alabaster, that is underlined only in a first time to the ancient shine as done artistic, only it will also assume subsequently a commercial aspect. Under this aspect the advent of great weight will be the construction of the Psychiatric (1888) hospital that, together with the Prison institute, it will mark a turn in the economy of the city. March 13 th 1860, with 2315 favorable votes, 78 contrary and 44 lost, Volterra votes his/her annexation to united Italy. Today, after the emigration happened after the second World war, the resident population is subsequently decreased, passing from 1951 17.840 unities to 13.800 of 1991. The economy of the city founds him on the activity of small devoted firms to the workmanship of the alabaster, on the extraction of the salgemma (to Salt pans of Volterra) and on some industry metalmeccanica and chemistry. Only Volterra has recently discovered his/her vocation "tourist" and he is well equipped to develop, to the best, this new activity.