Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo

Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine - Grand Duke of Tuscany and later Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

(Schönbrunn (Vienna) May 3, 1747 - Vienna March 30, 1792)

Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine reigned in Tuscany from 1765 to 1790.

His government was distinguished by such a reformist and modern imprint that it became one of the most "enlightened" sovereigns in history.

Under his leadership, the Grand Duchy experienced a period of splendid flourishing, so much so that it became one of the most emancipated states in the whole of Europe.

But the people of Montecatini have an additional reason to be grateful to the Grand Duke since it is to him that we owe the birth of the spa town, the one on the plain at the foot of the ancient "Castle" (today Montecatini Alto).

In fact, if the healing properties of the waters of Montecatini were already known in Roman times and already in the 15th century “the baths” were visited for their therapeutic properties, it was Pietro Leopoldo who built a new city around the thermal springs that was destined to become, in the space of just over a hundred years, a center of international fame.

After the official inauguration ceremony, which took place in Florence on March 31, 1766, Pietro began to travel throughout the region to see firsthand the economic and social conditions of the people he governed and from these experiences a series of very detailed reports emerged - “Reports on the government of Tuscany,” partly published by Salvestrini in 1789 - thanks to which today we have an idea of ​​who and what he met and saw during his travels.

Following the plea sent to him by the Community of Monte Catini at the beginning of 1771, in October of the following year Pietro Leopoldo visited Valdinievole, realizing the desperate conditions in which the plain found itself: in a marshland of dozens of square kilometers, turned into a fishing lake by and for the Medici court, lived people humiliated by poverty and bent by the misfortune of the unhealthy place. They lived off the income derived from the large lake, fishing and the cultivation of marsh herbs, but were subjected to precarious living conditions due to the possibility of contracting typhus or the plague which from 1550 to 1756 caused twelve epidemics.

Having reclaimed the plain around the thermal springs, the Grand Duke planned the birth of a new Montecatini, designing its entire urban layout, contemplating the reconstruction of thermal establishments, one for each spring, the construction of a church and the royal residence, foreseeing the birth of a first large hotel and entrusting the projects to Gasparo Maria Paoletti, architect of the Scrittoio delle Regie Fabbriche.

From that time on, Montecatini Terme became, for the entire duration of the following two centuries, a place of stay for great and illustrious personalities until it was recognized, in 2021, precisely for its characteristics as a spa town whose first imprint is owed to the Grand Duke, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.