 Porto Ercole was first mentioned in 1296, when Margherita Aldobrandeschi, countess of Sovana, ordered the construction of a tower named "Torre di Terra", the oldest core of the town.In 1610, the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio, exiled by the Pope, died in Porto Ercole on his way back to Rome and was buried in a local church.The Dutch Royal Family maintained a summer residence here in the latter half of the twentieth century.