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63-545: Podestà ( Italian: [podeˈsta] ), also potestate or podesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of central and northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages . Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city-state, the counterpart to similar positions in other cities that went by other names, e.g. rettori ('rectors'). In

126-608: A podestà . Concerning Rome , with a history of civic violence, Gregorovius says that "in 1205 the Pope Innocent III changed the form of the civic government; the executive power lying henceforward in the hand of a single senator or podestà , who, directly or indirectly, was appointed by the pope". In Florence after 1180, the chief authority was transferred from the consuls to the podestà , and Milan and other cities were also ruled by these officials. The Republic of Genoa elected its first podestà in 1191,

189-488: A Brescian citizen, to quell the internal unrest that ravaged the capital of the Republic. There were, moreover, podestà in some of the cities of the adjoining Provence in southeastern France. An anonymous writer composed a short guide for the would-be podestà (although it would be unseemly to appear openly to run for the office), Oculus pastoralis , of about 1222; in six simple and brief chapters it guides

252-527: A governor was appointed to head the local government. In larger communes, the podestà was assisted by one or two vice-podestà nominated by the Ministry of Interior , in addition to a board of advisors ( consulta municipale ) nominated either by the local prefect or, in the major cities, by the Ministry of Interior. The decree was in effect from 21 April 1927 until 1945, when the entire system

315-703: A common podestà until 1453, when all Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks . The example of Italy in the matter of podestà was sometimes followed by cities and republics in Northern Europe in the Middle Ages, notably by such as had trade relations with Italy. The officers elected sometimes bore the title of podestà or podestat . Thus in East Frisia , there were podestà identical in name and functions to those of

378-541: A man of foreign birth their chief magistrate, giving him every power, authority and jurisdiction over the city, as well over criminal as over civil causes, and in times of war as well as in times of peace, calling him praetor as being above the others, or podestà , as having every authority and power over the city. Podestà were first more widely appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa when he began to assert

441-640: A manifestation of the temporal power of the pope , as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States' territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy . Only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the pope's temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all except the Leonine City of Rome, which the new Italian state did not occupy militarily despite its annexation of Lazio. In 1929,

504-635: A predominantly hilly territory (68.9%). The mountainous and flat areas are equivalent to 26.9% and 4.2% of the territorial distribution respectively. For centuries before the unification of Italy , which occurred in 1861, central Italy was divided into two states: the Papal States and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany . The Papal States , officially the State of the Church, were a series of territories in

567-412: A recognizable view of Siena and its countryside. In the allegorical representation of Good Government, the prosperous townspeople are trading and dancing in the streets. Beyond the city walls is a lush countryside in which crops are harvested. In the allegory of Bad Government , crime is rampant and diseased citizens roam a crumbling city; the countryside suffers from drought. Many of the frescoes in

630-625: A throne; the Judge reflects the tradition in the Christian Last Judgment to have God or Christ judging the saved on the left and the damned on the right. While classified as medieval or proto (pre)-renaissance art, these paintings show a transition from earlier religious art. Flanking the Allegory are two other paintings on perpendicular walls: Effects of Good Government and Effects of Bad Government . Both these frescoes depict

693-423: Is based on Tuscan, specifically on its Florentine dialect , and it became the language of culture throughout Italy because of the prestige of the works by Dante Alighieri , Petrarch , Giovanni Boccaccio , Niccolò Machiavelli , and Francesco Guicciardini . It would later become the official language of all Italian states and of the Kingdom of Italy when it was formed. Corsican on the island of Corsica and

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756-535: Is damaged by Lorenzetti's circular map of the world. Siena was decimated by the Black Death in 1348; approximately half of its population died in the plague. The republic's economy was destroyed and the state quickly declined from its position of prominence in Italy. The Franciscan religious order rose to power in the city. The stagnation over the following centuries meant that while Siena did not develop during

819-691: Is known for its picturesque landscapes and attracts tourists from all over the world, including Italy itself. Pristine landscapes serve as one of the primary motivators for tourists to visit central Italy, although there are others, such as a rich history of art. Roman cuisine comes from the Italian city of Rome . It features fresh, seasonal and simply prepared ingredients from the Roman Campagna . Then include peas , globe artichokes and fava beans , shellfish, milk-fed lamb and goat , and cheeses such as pecorino romano and ricotta . Olive oil

882-425: Is titled in its place, so there is no doubt about what each figure represents. The meaning of this fresco is clear: good government will make the people prosper. The allegory carries a strong social message of the value of the stable republican government of Siena. It combines elements of secular life with references to the importance of religion: Justice resembles Mary, Queen of Heaven, the patron saint of Siena, on

945-529: Is traditionally attributed to Simone Martini , although there is debate on the subject. The wall has circular markings left by the circular wall-mounted (now lost) map of the world by Ambrogio Lorenzetti . Hidden underneath this fresco is the New Fresco, plastered over and partly painted over. This fresco depicts two men standing alongside a town on a hill. The fresco is in poor condition from being painted over and its origin and intent remain unknown. It, also,

1008-635: Is used mostly to dress raw vegetables, and strutto (pork lard ) and fat from prosciutto are preferred for frying. The most popular sweets in Rome are small individual pastries called pasticcini , gelato and handmade chocolates and candies. Special dishes are often reserved for different days of the week; for example, gnocchi is eaten on Thursdays, baccalà (salted cod) on Fridays, and trippa on Saturdays. 42°18′35″N 13°14′58″E  /  42.3097°N 13.2494°E  / 42.3097; 13.2494 Palazzo Pubblico The outside of

1071-796: The Lex Frisionum . According to later tradition, it was Charlemagne who granted the Frisians the title of freemen and permitted them to choose their own podestat or imperial governor from among the chieftains, to organize and lead the defense of two of the three districts of Frisia, in Middle Frisia , from the Flie to the Lauwers and in East Frisia from the Lauwers to the Weser , later

1134-565: The Colosseum . Florence , regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance , is Tuscany 's most visited city, and nearby cities like Siena , Pisa , Arezzo and Lucca also have rich cultural heritage. Umbria 's population is small, but it has many important cities such as Perugia and Assisi . For similar reasons, Lazio and Tuscany are some of Italy's most visited regions and the main targets for Ecotourism . The area

1197-1068: The Etruscans , the North Picenes , the South Picene , the Umbri , the Latins , the Romans , the Byzantines and the Lombards . Some of its woodlands and mountains are preserved in several National Parks ; a major example is the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park , located in Abruzzo , with smaller parts in Lazio and Molise . It is the oldest in the Apennine Mountains and the second-oldest in Italy, with an important role in

1260-704: The House of Bourbon-Parma ( Kingdom of Etruria , 1801–1807) and later annexed it directly to the First French Empire . After the collapse of the Napoleon in 1814, the grand duchy was restored. The United Provinces of Central Italy , a client state of the Kingdom of Sardinia , annexed Tuscany in 1859. Tuscany was formally annexed to Sardinia in 1860 as part of the Unification of Italy after a landslide referendum in which 95% of voters approved. In 2023,

1323-628: The Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 until 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th century until the unification of Italy , between 1859 and 1870. The state had its origins in the rise of Christianity throughout Italy and, with it, the rising influence of the Christian Church . By the mid-8th century, with the decline of the Byzantine Empire in Italy,

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1386-697: The Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini , the head of the Italian government, ended the " Prisoner in the Vatican " problem involving a unified Italy and the Holy See by negotiating the Lateran Treaty , signed by the two parties. The treaty recognized the sovereignty of the Holy See over a newly created international territorial entity, a city-state within Rome limited to a token territory that became

1449-678: The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower in the Edgbaston campus of the University of Birmingham , which was completed in 1908. The upper-story windows of the Palazzo are heavily ornamented trefoil arches, typical of Sienese architecture. The pointed arches of all of the windows are a clear example of Gothic influence. Nearly every major room in the palace contains frescoes. These were unusual for

1512-526: The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , and southern Italian dialects are spoken. As a geographical region, however, central Italy may also include the regions of Abruzzo and Molise , which are otherwise considered part of southern Italy for socio-cultural, linguistic and historical reasons. Central Italy is crossed by the northern and central Apennines and is washed by the Adriatic Sea to

1575-611: The National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region , and a European Parliament constituency . Central Italy encompasses four of the country's 20 regions : The easternmost and southernmost parts of Lazio ( Cittaducale , Amatrice , Sora , Cassino , Isola del Liri , Sperlonga , Fondi , Gaeta and Formia districts, as well as the islands of Ponza and Ventotene ) are sometimes connected to southern Italy (the so-called Mezzogiorno ) for cultural and historical reasons since they were once part of

1638-541: The Vatican City . The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was an Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1860 and replaced the Republic of Florence . The grand duchy's capital was Florence . In the 19th century, the population of the grand duchy was about 1,815,000 inhabitants. Having brought nearly all Tuscany under his control after he had conquered the Republic of Siena , Cosimo I de' Medici

1701-506: The "Red Belt". The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 380.9 billion euro in 2018, accounting for 21.6% of Italy's economic output. The GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 31,500 euro, or 105% of the EU27 average the same year. The regions of Central Italy were exposed to different historical influences because of the peoples that settled there, such as the Celts ,

1764-518: The 12th and 13th centuries. This was probably due to their lesser concern (at the time) than other Italians in the affairs of the mainland. Afterwards, in a few cases, the term of office was extended to cover a period of years, or even a lifetime. They were confined in a luxury palace to keep them from being influenced by any of the local families. The architectural arrangement of the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena , built starting in 1297, evokes

1827-465: The Corso-Sardinian transitional varieties spoken in northern Sardinia ( Gallurese and Sassarese ) are classified by scholars as a direct offshoot from medieval Tuscan, even though they now constitute a distinct linguistic group. Marche , Tuscany , and Umbria , together with Emilia-Romagna , are considered to be the most left-leaning regions in Italy and together are also referred to as

1890-697: The Countship of Ostfriesland . The Italians probably became aware of the Frisian Potestaat, in Dutch "op poten staan" in English 'on legs standing', like for instance king Henry on his painting (Dutch: potestaat ; German: Potestat ; English: potestate ) during the Sixth Crusade in 1228. According to privileges that were falsely ascribed to the Carolingian era, the potestate

1953-749: The Fascist regime. Currently, podestà is the title of mayors in Italian -speaking municipalities of Graubünden in Switzerland , but it is not the case for the Canton of Ticino , which uses the title sindaco (the same currently in use throughout Italy). The term derives from the Latin word potestas ('power'). There is a similar derivation for the Arabic term سلطان sulṭān , originally meaning 'power' or 'authority'; it eventually became

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2016-486: The Italian republics; sometimes each province had one, and sometimes the federal diet elected a podestà -general for the whole country, the term of office being for a limited period or for life. The concept of a local man empowered to represent the Holy Roman Emperor was also a feature of medieval Frisia . From apocryphal beginnings, important rights were granted or confirmed under the code of law known as

2079-546: The Palace, including these, are badly damaged potentially due to salt once stored in the basement of the building. It is theoretically possible that the salts wicked moisture down from the walls, causing the plaster to dry excessively and the frescoes to flake off. Other frescoes include that of Guidoriccio da Fogliano at the siege of Montemassi , located in the Great Council Hall ( Sala del Mappamondo ). The fresco

2142-524: The autonomous powers and functions of comuni (municipalities), including elected town councils and mayors . Instead, all comuni , except for Rome , were to be headed by a podestà , an authoritarian mayor with full executive and legislative powers. He was appointed by royal charter (in practice, by the National Fascist Party ) for a renewable five-year term (which could be revoked at any time with immediate effect). In Rome,

2205-504: The beginning of the state's long economic decline. It peaked under Cosimo III . Francis Stephen of Lorraine , a cognatic descendant of the Medici, succeeded the family and ascended the throne of his Medicean ancestors. Tuscany was governed by a viceroy, Marc de Beauvau-Craon , for his entire rule. His descendants ruled and resided in the grand duchy until its end in 1859, barring one interruption, when Napoleon Bonaparte gave Tuscany to

2268-476: The citizens or by the citizens' representatives, rather like the older consuls (but not collegial). The podestà exercised the supreme power in the city, both in peace and war, and in foreign and domestic matters alike; but their term of office lasted only about a year. In order to avoid the intense strife so common in Italian civic life, it soon became the custom to hire a stranger to fill this position. Venetians were in special demand for this purpose during

2331-488: The dialects spoken in those areas have been assimilated into Gallo-Italic and Southern Italo-Romance respectively. In addition, the dialect of Rome has undergone considerable Tuscanization from the fifteenth century onwards, such that it has lost many of its central Italian features. Tuscan dialect is a set of Italo-Dalmatian varieties of Romance spoken in Tuscany , Corsica , and Sardinia . Standard Italian

2394-689: The east, by the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ligurian Sea to the west. The main rivers of this portion of the territory are the Arno and the Tiber with their tributaries (e.g. Aniene ), and the Liri - Garigliano . The most important lakes are Lake Trasimeno , Lake Montedoglio , Lake Bolsena , Lake Bracciano , Lake Vico , Lake Albano and Lake Nemi . From an altimetric point of view, central Italy has

2457-499: The fifteenth century, podesteria ( Venetian : podestarie ) were one of the intermediate levels of the hierarchical administrative organization, the highest ("provincial") level being the territorio (roughly a modern administrative region). After the other dogal republic, Genoa , was in 1273 granted control of Pera and Galata , commercial suburbs of Constantinople , by the Byzantine emperor, it governed them jointly by

2520-642: The following centuries up to 1918, the term was used to designate the head of the municipal administration, particularly in the Italian-speaking territories of the Austrian Empire . The title was taken up again during the Fascist regime with the same meaning. The podestà 's office, its duration and the residence and the local jurisdiction were called podesteria , especially during the Middle Ages, and in later centuries, more rarely during

2583-506: The frescoes. The most famous of the secular frescoes are three panels in the series on government in the Hall of the Nine (also known as Sala della Pace) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti . These frescoes are collectively known as The Allegory of Good and Bad Government . The Allegory of Good Government depicts the personification of Justice as a woman. She gestures to the scales of balance, held by

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2646-442: The largest figure in the image, a judge located in the center right. The judge is surrounded by additional personifications including Peace, who is represented as a fashionable, white-clad contemporary female figure with elaborate blonde hair . Concordia joins the cords of peace and welfare that she receives from Justice and gives it to the citizens, who pull this rope together to bind the wrist of Sovereignty. Each personified virtue

2709-533: The northern one may be referred to as the Area Perimediana , a distinction that will be made throughout this article. The two areas are divided along a line running approximately from Rome in the southwest to Ancona in the northeast. In the Early Middle Ages, Central Italian extended north into Romagna and covered all of modern-day Lazio , Abruzzo , and Molise . Since then, however,

2772-408: The northern part of the province of Ancona , Marche region, and Neapolitan , spoken in southern Lazio and in southern Marche as well as eastern fringes of Umbria . Central Italian refers to the dialects of Italo-Romance spoken in the so-called Area Mediana , which covers a swathe of central Italy. Area Mediana is also used in a narrower sense to describe the southern part in which case

2835-402: The novice through the requirements of the office, the salary, the address of welcome given by the retiring podestà to the new one, the choice of counsellors, the handling of money accounts. The fifth chapter offers some model speeches on public occasions, such as the death of prominent citizens. A final chapter touches upon making war (in a paragraph), and the training of urban officials. In

2898-464: The outwards curve (convex) of the Piazza del Campo , Siena's central square , of which the Palace is the focal point. At the top of this facade is a huge round flat bronze plate [Christogram], the symbol used by Saint Bernardino. It was placed there by the government in 1425 in gratitude to the great preacher, a native Sienese, for his sermons aimed at quelling social and political factionalism and unrest. The campanile or bell tower, Torre del Mangia ,

2961-551: The papacy became effectively sovereign. Several Christian rulers, including Frankish kings Charlemagne and Pepin the Short , donated further lands to be governed by the Church. During the Renaissance , the papal territory expanded greatly, and the Pope became one of Italy's most important secular rulers as well as the head of the Church. At their zenith, the Papal States covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio , which includes Rome ; Marche ; Umbria ; Romagna ; and portions of Emilia . Those holdings were considered to be

3024-402: The personification of Wisdom floating over her throne. On the viewer's left, a convicted criminal is beheaded; on the right, figures receive the rewards of justice. At Justice's feet, the personification of Virtue, also, unusually for the time, portrayed as a female figure, passes virtue among 24 faithfully rendered and recognizable images of prominent male citizens of Siena. The men face towards

3087-400: The population in central Italy amounts to 11,680,843 inhabitants. Here is the population residing in 2023 in municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants: Central Italy is dominated by Central Italian and the Tuscan dialect . Other languages spoken are Gallo-Piceno ("Gallo-Italic Marche" or "Gaul-Marche"), a Gallo-Italic language spoken in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino and in

3150-439: The preservation of endemic species such as the Italian wolf , Abruzzo chamois and Marsican brown bear . Central Italy has many major tourist attractions, many of which are protected by UNESCO . Central Italy is possibly the most visited in Italy and contains many popular attractions as well as sought-after landscapes. Rome boasts the remaining wonders of the Roman Empire and some of the world's best-known landmarks, such as

3213-420: The rights that his Imperial position gave him over the cities of northern Italy; at the second imperial diet at Roncaglia , November 1158, Frederick appointed in several major cities imperial podestà "as if having imperial power in that place". The elected consuls, which Frederick had claimed the right to ratify, began to designate directly. The business of the podestà was to enforce imperial rights. From

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3276-419: The sixteenth century. The officials sent by the Italian republics to administer the affairs of dependent cities were also sometimes called podestà . Into the 20th century the cities of Trento and Trieste gave the name of podestà to their chief magistrate . The Fascist regime created its own version of the podestà figure. In February 1926, Mussolini's Senate issued a decree which abolished

3339-437: The start, this was very unpopular, and their often arbitrary behaviour was a factor in bringing about the formation of the Lombard League and the uprising against Frederick in 1167. Although the Emperor's experiment was short-lived, the podestà soon became important and common in northern Italy, making their appearance in most communes around the year 1200, with an essential difference. These officials were now appointed by

3402-413: The structure is an example of Italian medieval architecture with Gothic influences. The lower story is stone while the upper crenellated stories are made of brick. At a time when brick as a finished face was rare, Siena preferred it to stone because it was cheaper; this allowed architects to use more expensive detailing elsewhere. The facade of the palace is curved slightly inwards (concave) to reflect

3465-424: The struggle against the count of Holland. The title became well known outside of Friesland only with the installation of Albrecht of Saxony as hereditary potestate in 1498; the Frisians chose Jancko Douwama as their imperial stadtholder (1522). Central Italy Central Italy ( Italian : Italia centrale or Centro Italia ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by

3528-491: The thirteenth century in Florence, in Orvieto (1251) and some other cities, a capitano del popolo ( lit.   ' captain of the people ' ) was chosen to look after the interests of the lower classes (to this day, the heads of government of the little independent republic of San Marino are still called " capitani "). In other ways the power of the podestà was reduced—they were confined more and more to judicial functions until they disappeared early in

3591-444: The time in that they were commissioned by the governing body of the city, rather than by the Church or by a religious fraternity. They are also unusual in that many of them depict secular subjects instead of the religious subjects which are overwhelmingly typical of Italian art of this era. Although these frescoes are secular in origin and overall theme, the ideas are expressed within a religious framework: scriptural verses are quoted on

3654-649: The title of the person holding power. The first documented usage of podestà was in Bologna in 1151, when it was applied to Guido di Ranieri di Sasso of Canossa, brought in from Faenza to be rettore e podestà , noted in numerous documents. Leander Albertus gives the particulars: The citizens, seeing that there often arose among them quarrels and altercations, whether from favoritism or friendship, from envy or hatred that one had against another, by which their republic suffered great harm, loss and detriment; therefore, they decided, after much deliberation, to provide against these disorders. And thus they began to create

3717-455: The uneasy relation of the commune with the podestà , who in Siena's case was a disinterested nobleman at the head of the judiciary. It provided a self-contained lodging round its own interior court for the podestà , separate but housed within the Palazzo Pubblico where the councillors and their committee of nine habitually met. During the later part of the twelfth and the whole of the thirteenth century, most Italian cities were governed by

3780-427: Was abandoned with the return to democracy. Literally, this derived word means the office of a podestà or its term, but podesteria can also designate a district administered by a podestà within a larger state. In the Domini di Terraferma that the dogal Republic of Venice gradually established in the basin of the river Po, annexing various former principalities and self-governing cities, mostly in

3843-429: Was built between 1325 and 1344; its crown was designed by the painter Lippo Memmi . The tower was designed to be taller than the tower in neighboring rival Florence ; at the time it was the tallest structure in Italy. It was fitted with a mechanical clock during the mid-14th century. Its design has been used as the basis for several other campaniles, including the Dock Tower in Grimsby , England, constructed in 1852 and

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3906-454: Was chosen by council and he must be able to slay knights. Apocryphal historical writings mention the potestate as early as the Viking Age . The only potestates chosen to lead Friesland between the Vlie and Lauwers were Juw Juwinga (1396) and Juw Dekema (1494), both were chosen by the Schieringers . However, in 1399 the districts of Westergo and Oostergo elected potestates, Haring Harinxma and Sjoerd Wiarda respectively, in

3969-436: Was elevated by a papal bull of Pope Pius V to Grand Duke of Tuscany on August 27, 1569. The grand duchy was ruled by the House of Medici until the extinction of its senior branch in 1737. While not as internationally renowned as the old republic, the grand duchy thrived under the Medici and bore witness to unprecedented economic and military success under Cosimo I and his sons until the reign of Ferdinando II , which saw

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