Arezzo

Arezzo (Latin Arretium) is an old city in central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about 80 km (50 miles) south-east of Florence, at an elevation of 296 meters above sea level. In 2001 the population was about 91,600 people.

Geography and statistical information

Arezzo is set on a steep hill rising from the floodplain of the Arno. In the upper part of the town are the cathedral, the town hall and the Medici Fortress (Fortezza Medicea), from which the main streets branch off towards the lower part as far as the gates. The upper part of the town maintains its medieval aspect despite the addition of later structures.

History

Arezzo may have been one of the twelve most important Etruscan cities, the so-called Dodecapolis. It was described by Livy as one of the Capitae Etruriae (chief Etruscan cities). Etruscan remains establish that the acropolis of San Cornelio, a small hill next to that of San Donato, was occupied and fortified in the Etruscan period. There is other significant Etruscan evidence, parts of walls, an Etruscan necropolis on Poggio del Sole (still named "Hill of the Sun" ), and most famously, the two bronzes, the "Chimera of Arezzo" (5th century BCE) and the "Minerva" (4th century BCE) which were discovered in the 16th century and taken to Florence. Increasing trade connections with Greece also brought some elite goods to the Etruscan nobles of Arezzo: the krater painted by Euphronios ca 510 BCE with a battle against Amazons (in the Museo Civico, Arezzo 1465) is unsurpassed.

Conquered by the Romans in 311 BCE, Arretium became a military station on the via Cassia, the road to expansion by republican Rome into the basin of the Po. Arretium sided with Marius in the Roman Civil War, and the victorious Sulla planted a colony of his veterans in the half-demolished city, as Arretium Fidens ("Faithful Arretium"). The old Etruscan aristocracy was not extinguished: Caius Clinius Mecaenas, whose name is eponymous with "patron of the arts", was of the noble Aretine Etruscan stock. The city continued to flourish as Arretium Vetus ("Old Arretium"), the third largest city in Italy in the Augustan period, well-known in particular for its widely-exported pottery manufactures, the characteristic moulded and glazed Arretine ware , bucchero-ware of dark clay, and red-painted vases (the so-called "coral" vases).

In the 4th century, Arezzo became an episcopal seat: it is one of the few cities whose succession of bishops are known by name without interruption to the present day, in part because they were the feudal lords of the city in the Middle Ages. The Roman city was demolished, partly through the Gothic War and the invasion of the Lombards, partly dismantled, as elsewhere throughout Europe, and the stones reused for fortifications by the Aretines. Only the amphitheater remained.

The commune of Arezzo threw off the control of its bishop in 1098. Until 1384, Arezzo maintained itself as an independent city-state, generally Ghibelline in tendency, thus opposing Guelph Florence. In 1252 the city founded its university, the Studium. After the rout of the Battle of Campaldino (1289), which saw the death of Bishop Guglielmino Ubertini, the fortunes of Ghibelline Arezzo started to ebb, apart from a brief period under the Tarlati family, chief among them Guido Tarlati, who became bishop in 1312 and maintained good relations with the Ghibelline party. The Tarlati sought support in an alliance with Forlì and its overlords, the Ordelaffi, but unavailingly: Arezzo yielded to Florentine domination in 1384; its individual history was submerged in that of Florence and the Medicean Grand Duchy of Tuscany. During this period Piero della Francesca worked in the church of San Francesco di Arezzo producing the splendid frescoes, recently restored, which are Arezzo's most famous works, but afterwards the city began an economical and cultural decay, that had the effect of preserving its medieval centre.

In the 18th century the neighbouring marshes of the Val di Chiana, south of Arezzo, were drained and the region became more pleasant. At the end of the century French troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Arezzo, but the city soon turned into a base of the resistance against the invaders with the movement of "Viva Maria": this gained the city the role of provincial capital. In 1860 Arezzo became part of the Kingdom of Italy. City buildings suffered heavy damage during World War II.

Monuments and places of interest

• Roman amphitheatre and museum
• cathedral of S. Donato with good medieval stained glass and the Gothic tomb of Pope Gregory X (14th cent.)
• Romanesque church of S. Maria della Pieve (illustration above)
• church of S. Francesco, with the History of the True Cross fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca in the Bacci Chapel
• church of S. Domenico with crucifix by Cimabue (founded 1275 and completed in the early 14th century)
• church of S. Michele
• Piazza Grande with the Vasari Loggia
• Medici Fortress (Fortezza Medicea)
• SS. Flora e Lucilla in Badia ("la Badia")
• House of Petrarch (Casa del Petrarca)
• House of Vasari (Casa Vasari)
• Ivan Bruschi House and Museum (Casa-Museo "Ivan Bruschi")
• Gaio Cilnio Mecenate Archeological Museum
• Civic Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
• Diocesan Museum (Museo Diocesano)
• State Museum of Medieval and Modern Art (Museo Statale d'Arte Medievale e Moderna)

Festivals

• Arezzo is home to an annual medieval festival called the Joust of the Saracens (Giostra del Saracino). In this, "knights" on horseback representing different areas of the town charge at a wooden target attached to a carving of a Saracen king and score points according to accuracy. Virtually all the town's people dress-up in medieval costume and enthusiastically cheer on the competitors.

• Arezzo is also home to an annual popular music and culture festival, each July, called Arezzo Wave. Publicly funded, it attracts bands of high repute and attendees from all over Europe and North America. It also features literary and film expositions.

Role in popular culture

• Arezzo has a starring role in Roberto Benigni's film, Life is Beautiful (La Vita è bella) (1997). It is where the main characters live before they are shipped off to a Nazi concentration camp.

• Arretium was used in the PC game Rome: Total War as the Capital of the Roman Faction of Julii

Notable people from Arezzo

Prominent people from Arezzo include the scholar Petrarch, painter and biographer Giorgio Vasari, botanist Andrea Cesalpino, poet Guittone d'Arezzo, Pope Julius II, and Guido of Arezzo, who developed the system for writing the musical scale. Arezzo also gave birth to Maecenas, who protected artists such as Virgil and Horace, and the satirical poet Pietro Aretino. Gianfrancesco, also known as Giovanni Francesco Poggio Bracciolini, a famous humanist of the Italian Renaissance, was born near Arezzo. Among modern celebrities born in Arezzo are the twin actors Cole Sprouse and Dylan Sprouse.

Sports

• Associazione Calcio Arezzo (A.C. Arezzo)
• Vasari Rugby Arezzo
• Club sommozzatori Calypso - Federazione Italiana Attività Subacquee - Sez.Terr. Arezzo (diving)

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Arezzo".