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GIGLIO >> Giglio
Castello
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 The
narrow streets, surmounted by arches, the external stair-cases
to get into the picturesque houses, the charming foreshortenings
closed inside the Medicean city-walls all give Giglio Castello
a unique charm. Located on a hill, 400 meters above sea-level,
you enter the village on a narrow street that winds through
the impressive city-walls and gets in to the area that still
shows the reasons for its particular structure: to defend itself
from the attacks of enemies coming in from the sea and to take
as much advantage as possible of the narrow spaces to build
houses. Unfortunately, not even the impressive Pisan rock that
seems impregnable managed to keep the pirates away, who for
a long time and repeatedly laid waste on the island until the
18:th of November in 1799, when a meager but determined and
proud handful of heroes managed to chase the Tunisian invaders
away. Since then a feast is held at Giglio Castello on the 18:th
of November. A visit at Giglio Castello starts from the city-walls
that today show the Medicean setting that they took after the
re-construction with ruins from the previously existing Pisan
structure. |
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There are only seven towers left out of the previously existing
ten, other than the entrance with three gates that today form
the main-entrance to the village. After the populations' bold
opposition against the Saracenes, the Mediceans decided to build
a large reservoir with a puddle that would guarantee the water-supply
to the inhabitants of Castello in case of a siege or dryness.
The reservoir can still be seen on the inside of the city-walls.
The Giglio Castello church preserves a relic of San Mamiliano
who died in 460 at Monte Cristo and a lovely base of a holy-water
font composed by a Corinthian capital from the Trajan era, deriving
from a Roman settlement on the island. Not far from Castello,
along the road for Pietrabona, you find the so-called Valle
del Mulino that has gotten its name from the water-mill built
to grind the agrarian harvests. Lovers of good wine should not
miss the opportunity to visit one of Castello's many cellars
where the amber-colored and strong Ansonaco wine is produced
and bottled.
Photos from APT Grosseto and Mediaweb srl. |
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