In the context of the history of Tuscany and Italy, Montecatini has a centuries-old past, full of historical events that have left, in the Alto part, a legacy worthy of being thoroughly studied, and in the Terme part an exceptional transformations made of large-scale works centered around the thermal springs, as well as first-class hotel and commercial structures. There is a clear sense of separation between the past and the present, between the ancient and the modern.
In short, this is Montecatini: at the lower level, there is economic enterprise and the development of an international tourist culture that has brought fame and prosperity; at the higher level, on the hill, lies the authentic soul of the city of Montecatini, from before the building of the Baths.
MONTECATINI ALTO
Montecatini Alto has preserved evident signs of military and civic nobility, constantly defended over the years, and fiercely lost when it was destroyed.
The church of Montecatini Alto can be traced back to the Lombard era, but the most certain memory as a village, castle, and walled land dates back to 1074 when Ildebrando, the Lombard king, bequeathed one-sixth of his rights over the church to the bishopric of S. Martino di Lucca, to which the complete possession of the Montecatini hill was later added in 1084, donated to the bishop of Lucca. Montecatini thus entered the orbit of Lucca. One hundred years later, strenghtened by this protection, it had sufficient resources to establish itself as a Comune (municipality) and exercise its first municipal freedoms, gradually moving towards autonomy, outside the prestigious but also looming power of Lucca, starting from 1164.
Montecatini aligned itself with the Guelph faction and found itself in the midst of the struggles between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines over the years, but also managed to strengthen and expand in the 12th century through military successes. Slowly, it managed to fortify itself with a monumental structure: almost 2 km of walls, 2 fortresses, 7 gates, and 25 towers.
At the end of the century it went back into Lucca’s orbit, but still kept municipal freedom thanks to its strategic importance.
At the beginning of the 14th century, a new power appeared at the Valdinievole borders: Florence.
But just as Florence was getting close to achieving its conquest plans at the beginning of the 1300s, it was slowed down by a Ghibellines revolt happening in the north-west of the region. Leading that revolt was Uguccione della Faggiola, whom in 1312, after becoming an Imperial’s deputy and Lord of Pisa and Lucca, threatened Florence directly.
War was inevitable, as control over the whole Tuscan region hinged on that conflict.
The decisive year was 1315: Uguccione tried to besiege Montecatini, a strategic stronghold, but exactly due to its great position and also the help of Florence allies, the siege failed. The key confrontation took place August 29 under the walls of Montecatini. The Guelph army (the Florentines and other allies) was taken by surprise by the Ghibelline army lead by Uguccione and Castruccio Castracani degli Antelminelli. After many battles, resulting in thousands of casualties and prisoners, the Ghibellines emerged victorious. Montecatini thus went back to being under the control of Lucca.
The following year Uguccione was forced to flee, Castruccio Castracani degli Antelminelli taking his place. He first became Lord of Lucca, then of Pisa, and managed to esponentially extend his power in Tuscany. In 1323, Castruccio tried to conquer Fucecchio, one of Florence’s strongholds, but was wounded and forced to retreat; this marked the beginning of Florence’s slow but unrelenting rise back to power.
Florence sent an army to siege Montecatini in an attempt to take it back. After six long months, the Florentines launched an assault, but were disastrously repelled. Lucca tried but failed to send help to Montecatini, who was forced to endure the assualt on its own. After eleven months of siege, on Febrary 17 1330, the Castle yelded to Florence and thus became Republic territory.
Over the years changes and skirmishes kept on happening in the Valdinievole, but we’ll have to wait until the ‘500s to see Montecatini again at the center of a historical event: yet another war.
It began in 1554, with on one side Cosime dei Medici, and on the other Pietro Strozzi, representing respectively a Florence of Spanish allegiance, and a Siena of French allegiance. Cosimo wanted to conquer Siena in order to expand his territories, and as a reaction to that Siena, on June 11 1554, set out to conquer the Valdinievole. Pietro Strozzi managed to slowly but surely conquer the Vale, causing the retreat of the Spaish-Medici army towards Pistoria. On June 21 of that same year Montecatini was taken, using a cavalry of only a hundred and fifty Franco-Sienese horsemen.
Montecatini didn’t resist, also because Cornelio Bentivoglio anticipated the coming of Strozzi by spreading the news that he was a liberator. Montecatini, once an impregnable fortress, was now in terrible conditions due to deterioration and the harsh trials incurred over centuries of battles.
Thus, when the Medici and their army attacked again, Montecatini quickly fell back into their hands, whom ransacked ruthlessly taking with them even doors and windows. But Cosimo, unhappy and full of resentment over Montecatini getting conquered without resistence at first and the fighting back in order not to get back under the Medici domain, ordered to “wreck it from the ground up”; so then, for days and days, eight hundred men hammered away at walls, towers and houses; from the destruction only a hundred and sixty homes, three nunneries, the Podestà Palace and the Justice Palace were spared. The Duke’s troops took all the ancient books and documents that made up the municipal archive and, together with every other paper and writing they could find, made a pile and burned them, condemning everything that could carry on the memory of the town’s traditions.
During Florentine domination the town began regulating access to the springs the flowed in the valley, but the true flourishing of the settlement happened in the XVIII century at the hands of the Lorena family, that finally gave just recognition to the healing waters and jumpstarted the costruction of the thermal facilities.
At the end of the 19th century, when the thermal facilities had reached full economic and touristic development, fights and misunderstandings began between the medieval village and the thermal town. In an attempt to settle the misunderstandings and keep the two towns united, in1898 took place the inauguration of the funicular railway and funicular carts that to this day connect the thermal vale and the hill town.
Despite that attempt though, the disputes kept on, and resulted in 1905 in the breaking up of Montecatini in three different municipalities: Montecatini Valdinievole (today Montecatini Alto), Bagni di Montecatini (today Montecatini Terme), and Pieve a Nievole. This separation was partly reversed in 1940, when Montecatini Terme and Montecatini Alto were united again as one Comune.
Today Montecatini Alto is a remarkably charming historical village, with its narrow paths, the main square, the Ugolino Tower – a memory of the 25 towers that dotted the town and the walls before the 1554 destruction -, the San Pietro Priory Church, and the promenade that surrounds the entire village, from which people can enjoy the beautiful landscape of the Valdinievole.
MONTECATINI TERME
The history of Montecatini Terme is, for many centuries, the same as that of Montecatini Alto, but the part of that history most relevant to us for the consequences it had on our present is that of the usage of its waters.
Of course we’re talking about the healing thermal waters, with the centuries-old Bagni di Montecatini Terme, but also of drainage and swamp water, today concentrated in the Padule di Fucecchio marsh but once absolute rulers of the Valdinievole terrotory until the Lorena family’s intervention.
For most of the Middle Ages the unrivalled domination of the waters beat human’s tenacity and industriousness, especially those of the sporadic attempts from individual municpalities and monastic orders from the 11th century onwards, aimed at curbing the damage caused by the water or take some of it for agriculture.
Life in Valdinievole was closely tied to the Ponte a Cappiano (Fucecchio) floodgates. Their opeing and closing, often happening one after the other following political instructions of the time, were also creating dense fogs that were hazardous for people and coltures. The Medici family, owner of these territories from 1435, built a great New Lake by lifting the floodgates, with the goal of supporting fishing and making the whole space traversable by boat.
However, in 1515 the Great Lake had become boggy, filled with mud and poor quality fish, and was creating more toxic fogs that hurt people and fields. Cosimo I, continuing the Medici’s policy, focused his attention on Valdinievole by acquiring more land and organizing them into an early form of Farms that ended up lasting until the Leopoldine reforms. He decided to expand the opening of Ponte a Cappiano, bringing the vast lake back to life and reaffirming the primacy of fishing and navigation for the sake of environmental restoration. As a result, many parts of the land resurfaced, but inadequate land reclamation measures were implemented, so the lives of the poor inhabitants did not improve.
His successors Francesco I (1574-1587) and Ferdinando I (1587-1609) changed direction by lowering the Chiuse di Ponte a Cappiano (1583) and making the land, which was largely owned by them, fertile around the Padule.
The reclamation works started under Ferdinando I, continued in the following decades and carried out in a disjointed and uncoordinated manner, were not sufficient to overcome constant natural and epidemic threats.
With the advent of the Lorraine-Habsburgs to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, all these recurring tragedies finally came to an end.
In 1765, Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine arrived in Tuscany as Grand Duke and immediately showed openness to innovations. During his reign, he transformed Palazzo Pitti into the most wise, just, humane, and progressive seat of government in Europe at that time.
Furthermore, he was also an innovator in the fields of economy, public affairs, healthcare, and science. As a reformer, he treated Tuscany as a nation with common customs and values. He visited Montecatini several times to personally understand the discomfort of Valdinievole and had the territory inspected by great scholars, wanting to make the most just and reasonable decisions for the area. After a visit to Montecatini in 1772, the Grand Duke ordered the demolition of the floodgates of Ponte a Cappiano.
When the waters receded, other healthy springs emerged in the lands of Montecatini, and the canalization of thermal-mineral waters was initiated, along with the restoration of the city that implemented the concept of a modern thermal town.
In 1817, the thermal complex was transferred from the grand duchy to the community, providing a sufficient amount of money to keep them efficient. From the following year, they were managed by a delegation composed of esteemed individuals of the time, including Giuseppe Giusti’s father. With this new administration of the Baths, there were innovations and improvements.
The end of the Lorenese era coincided with the rise of the Risorgimento, and the end of the Grand Duchy occurred in 1859.
In 1860, Montecatini came under the Province of Lucca, with its headquarters in Montecatini Alto.
In 1889, thanks to the International Medical Congress held in Florence, the city embarked on activities in the field of thermal medicine. In the same year, the urban project proposed and initiated by Pietro Leopoldo was expanded and improved.
In 1898, the funicular to the castle was inaugurated.
In 1905, Montecatini Alto and Bagni di Montecatini became autonomous municipalities.
At the beginning of the century, the tourist offering had improved and diversified. The number and quality of hotels had increased, and there was also a need to combine treatments with entertainment, relaxation, and sports. Trendy restaurants, theaters, nightclubs, a casino, and famous personalities began to frequent the city.
Between the end of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century, it was easy to encounter figures such as Giuseppe Verdi, Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Trilussa, Beniamino Gigli, or Luigi Pirandello in the tree-lined avenues, parks, or establishments. Thanks to them, Montecatini became an internationally renowned meeting point: politics were discussed, and business deals were concluded.
In the first half of the 20th century, the construction and renovation of the town followed the canons of the belle époque, which found one of its greatest applications in Montecatini in the Liberty style. From 1904 to 1915, the Torretta and Excelsior establishments were built, and from 1919 to 1928, Ugo Giovannozzi restored the Leopoldine and Tettuccio spas.
Even Mussolini went to see the establishments to check how the money given by the state for the restoration had been spent, and entrusted the administration to Arturo Schweiger.
With the interlude of the Second World War, Montecatini, first occupied by the Germans and then by the Anglo-Americans advancing towards the Gothic Line, suddenly changed its image from a thermal holiday resort to a city of hospital service and managed to emerge, not without wounds and lacerations, almost unscathed from both the air bombings of 1943 and the Nazi massacres of 1944.
In 1958, the state regained ownership of the thermal baths, symbolizing a second phase with the reconstruction of the Redi and Excelsior baths.
Montecatini of those years, driven by private initiatives and geared towards internationalization, was frequented by important people, nobles, people from the world of entertainment and politics, Hollywood stars and Nobel Prize winners.
In 1970, the thermal baths remained open all year round, but from that moment on, there has been a slow decline. Until today, the trend of thermal baths has significantly diminished and thermal medicine is considered as an alternative.
Since the 1990s, efforts have been made to revive the thermal baths and the city, trying to restore it to its former glory as a jewel of thermal tourism.
