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The Chianti Region in the Middle Ages: A Land of Castles and Bloody Wars



The Middle Ages was a long and inevitably "complex" historical epoch encompassing the period from the 5th to the 15th century. For over 1,000 years many rulers and, alas, fought on the territory the Chianti region: Ostrogoths, Longobards, Franks, Popes, Emperors, Republics and Kings tried to consolidate their domination of the territory with a series of wars and retaliations that had high consequences for the Chianti region.

During the High Middle Ages the territory was divided into feuds - wide portions of land ruled by the Marquises of Tuscany, called Margraves, who operated as Imperial representatives and delegated the administration of small areas to their vassals or to religious congregations. In that period many castles were strategically built atop the hills, along with parish churches and monasteries that can still be admired during a holiday in the Chianti region.

Though feuds were fairly stable entities, on a higher level the Middle Ages was a period of fierce struggle for the control of the territory: at first, between the Bishops of Siena and Arezzo and then, from the 12th century, between Siena and Florence. The Imperial and Sienese army, which were allied with Florence and the Kingdom of Naples respectively, besieged and lay waste to the Chianti region until 1555, the year in which Florence ultimately defeated its enemies and the Medicean Duchy established its rule over the whole Tuscany.

Apart from the castles, many town museums house interesting items dating back to that bellicose epoch, evidence of such bloody events that one cannot even imagine to have really occurred while strolling among the farmhouses and vineyards of the peaceful Chianti hills.

 

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