There are news of what happened in an attack by the pirates, described in a letter written by\u00a0Ambrogio Colombani<\/strong>, Captain of the troops in Grosseto, in\u00a01536<\/strong>. In this letter he tells he was warned by a soldier, who was sharing the same barracks in\u00a0Castelmarino<\/strong>, of the imminent incursion as this man had seen the enemies in the\u00a0Collelungo bay<\/strong>. The letter is a detailed description of how he organised the attack against the pirates and of the suffering and the pain both him and his men had to endure, due to lack of food and the fever caused by the long ambushes in the thick woods, probably in the forest of\u00a0Giannella<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n Another example of raids and robberies is the one described by\u00a0Flaminio Nelli<\/strong>,\u00a0Governor of Grosseto<\/strong>, in the\u00a01560<\/strong>\u00a0letter to the Grand Duke. It tells the incursion in Porto Ercole and Orbetello during, as it frequently used to happen, some people were abducted.<\/p>\n\n The most effective defence, in use since the Roman period, was the sighting towers, not many of which, however, during the Sienese domination had been built in this area.
\nIn Spanish territories, initiatives of defence against piracy had been promoted, since the war between Charles 5th and Francis 1st.<\/p>\n\n In\u00a01532 Don Pedro of Toledo and Viceroy of Napoli\u00a0<\/strong>decided to have new sighting towers, built to defend the coasts and issued an edict concerning this matter: the project however did not come to anything.
\nAfter the defeat of the Spanish fleet near\u00a0Tunisi in 1560,\u00a0<\/strong>a new way of intervening on dry land was also taken into consideration. In\u00a01563,<\/strong>\u00a0in fact, the Viceroy and\u00a0Duke of Alcala\u2019 Don Perafan de Ribera\u00a0<\/strong>issued an edict with precise regulations of how to act on land<\/p>\n\n In the territories of the Grand Duchy, instead, new sighting towers were only built when\u00a0Cosimo 1st<\/strong>, in agreement with the new\u00a0Spanish\u00a0<\/strong>dispositions, sent his military engineers to Maremma. At the end of the period characterised by the incursions of the pirates, these sites started to be used to check on smuggling activities which were recurrently occurring on the coast.<\/p>\n\n The towers, 10 or 15 meters high, were built in small dimensions, as they were not subjected to attacks and did not therefore have to defend the territory, and at a distance not superior to three miles from each other. Consequently the garrison was reduced to the minimum with often only one\u00a0Castellan<\/strong>\u00a0and a soldier.<\/p>\n\n As for the building topology of this period all the towers, except only a few, were in stone and with square shaped foundations, and covered with a roof or terrace supported by stone slabs. The entrance door was facing the dry land, as this was the most protected area. The only openings were little loopholes placed on strategic points. Inside, simple wooden ceilings would divide the floors and outside the furnace and the stables would be included in a fortified enclosure.<\/p>\n\n After the political and military fall of the last years of the\u00a0Medici government<\/strong>, in\u00a01737 Francesco\u00a0 Stefano<\/strong>\u00a0of the Lorena family took charge of Tuscany and all the forts which had been so far under Spanish control. He started to organize in the Austrian way, the inefficient army. In the period of time between\u00a01741 and 1745<\/strong>, to face external attacks, a new regiment of national bands was also founded in\u00a0Sienese Maremma<\/strong>. In the most important strongholds on the coast the Castellan was accompanied by a dozen gunners, while in the smallest ones there used to be a tower man and five or six soldiers.<\/p>\n\n In\u00a01767<\/strong>\u00a0some defeats that these areas had experienced convinced the reformer and illuminist spirit\u00a0Pietro Leopoldo\u00a0<\/strong>of the importance of the dismantlement and sale of all the forts that were not particularly used or too expensive for the budget of the Grand Duchy, and consequently gave the normal authorities the maintenance of the public order.<\/p>\n\n This policy was highly criticized in\u00a01793<\/strong>\u00a0when\u00a0Pietro Leopoldo\u2019 successor,\u00a0<\/strong>Ferdinando<\/strong>\u00a03rd<\/strong>, decided to patrol the Tuscan coast and realized that it was uncontrollable because it was divided into areas controlled by different princes and because it was completely disarmed. This error was fatal for the Grand Duke who, in\u00a01799<\/strong>, had to seek refuge in Austria.<\/p>\n\n The\u00a0Lorena\u00a0<\/strong>were succeeded by the\u00a0Borboni of Parma<\/strong>\u00a0and immediately after Tuscany was annexed to the Napoleonic empire as the\u00a0Kingdom of Etruria<\/strong>. There is an important document concerning this period entitled \u201cLe brigantage\u201d dans le\u00a0Departement de l\u2019Ombrone 1808-1814<\/strong>, which describes the continuous contacts between the Prefect of the Ombrone area and the central authorities in Paris. This document was mentioned in the article of Vittoria Ardito, in 1985.<\/p>\n\n In the cartography of the area, between the Uccellina Park and southern borders of Tuscany, the main coastal towers, with the exception of those ones not in use any more, are listed.<\/p>\n\n In the\u00a0Grosseto District<\/strong>, near the mouth of the\u00a0Ombrone river<\/strong>, one can come across the tower of Trappola and the Ridotto di Bocca d\u2019Ombrone and, going southwards, towards the mountain areas, the towers of\u00a0Castelmarino<\/strong>,\u00a0Collelungo\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0San Rabano<\/strong>. This last one being part of the monastic complex. In the\u00a0District of Magliano in Toscana<\/strong>\u00a0it is possible to see the towers of\u00a0Cala di Forno<\/strong>,\u00a0Bella Marsilia<\/strong>, and\u00a0Torre Bassa<\/strong>, historically part of the property of the\u00a0Marsili<\/strong>\u00a0family. The area belonging to the\u00a0District of Orbetello<\/strong>\u00a0was defended by the towers of\u00a0Poggio Raso<\/strong>,\u00a0Cannelle<\/strong>,\u00a0Capo d\u2019Uomo<\/strong>,\u00a0Mulinaccio<\/strong>, and\u00a0Talamonaccio<\/strong>\u00a0which, although not included in the area of the Park, contributed to the defence of the\u00a0Talamone bay<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n In the\u00a0District of Monte Argentario,<\/strong>\u00a0walking on the headland, the visitor can find the towers of\u00a0Peschiera<\/strong>,\u00a0Santa Liberata<\/strong>,\u00a0Calvello<\/strong>,\u00a0Lividonia<\/strong>,\u00a0Caccaiarella<\/strong>,\u00a0Cala Grande<\/strong>,\u00a0Cala Moresca<\/strong>,\u00a0Cala Piccola<\/strong>,\u00a0Capo d\u2019Uomo<\/strong>,\u00a0Maddalena<\/strong>,\u00a0Cannelle<\/strong>,\u00a0Ciana<\/strong>, and\u00a0Avvoltore<\/strong>. By following the coast it is possible to go back to the territory under the District of Orbetello where, on the Poggio di Ansedonia, are located the two towers of\u00a0San Pancrazio<\/strong>.
\nThe two\u00a0Puccini towers<\/strong>\u00a0are in the\u00a0Capalbio District<\/strong>, near the\u00a0Etruscan Tagliata,<\/strong>\u00a0and in the same District it is possible to find also the tower of\u00a0Buranaccio<\/strong>\u00a0on the Burano lake and the tower of\u00a0Selva Nera<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pirates and watchtowers In the 15th century the ever growing menace of\u00a0Turkish\u00a0power became one of the main worries of western sovereigns, as piracy was part of the sea policy of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8122,"parent":8104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8120","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/parco-maremma.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_0405_storie-leggende-683x1024.jpeg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/parco-maremma.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/page-torri-1.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/parco-maremma.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/page-rabano.jpeg\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\nWhere the towers are located<\/h2>\n\n