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Borgo San Lorenzo

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Inhabitants in 1991: 15.285

The Municipal territory of Borgo San Lorenzo in Val di Sieve, at the centre of the Mugello Valley, extends in plain, hills and mountains for 146,15 square kilometres. It was an antique Medieval Podesta Office and in 1774 Pietro Leopoldo confirmed its jurisdiction over 23 cliques and neighbouring parishes.

It formed itself as a village around the plebian church of San Lorenzo, was ceded by the feudal lineage of Ubaldini to the Firenze Episcopate towards the middle of the X century. It remained at length under the dominion of the Fiorentini Bishops, the villagers began to reclaim their independence in 1222, and managed to obtain it in stages, until 1272 when the nth revolt decreed the end of the civil rule by the Bishop. But the full independence did not last long, since in 1290 Firenze acquired from the Episcopate the rights over Borgo and the other lands of the Mugello for 3,000 gold florins. Faithful to Firenze and to Guelfism Borgo had to submit several times in the following decade to attacks by enemies of the capital who invaded the countryside arriving from the north: in 1303 it was invaded by the Ghibellini from Romagna united to the escaping Fiorentini and again in 1312 by the Ubaldini. To partly remedy this, profiting by the Visconti menace, Firenze decided in 1351 to encircle it again with more solid walls and towers and the first statutes of the municipality were compiled in 1374.

In 1529 it suffered the occupation of the Imperial troops. Gravely damaged by an earthquake in 1919, new lacerations and bereavements with the coming of Fascism. After 8 September 1943, the clandestine antifascist activity was brought into the open and the partisan activity was intense. the 30 December 1943 Borgo suffered a disastrous bombardment by the English Airforce (200 dead) and others again in the following months, aggravated then by the destruction by the Nazifascists in retreat. In the course of the last two decades the capital has particularly developed confirming itself as the most popularised centre of the Mugello.

Places to visit:
Palazzo Pretorio, today the Seat of the Community Library, rebuilt in 1935 has its facade covered with coats of arms in stone and terracotta of the various Podestas.
S. Lorenzo. antique parish church from 1263 built on a preceding installation, was gravely damaged in the 1919 earthquake and rebuilt with antique material in 1922/39. The three nave interior houses exquisite works of art, in demonstration of the importance that the church had in the past.
Sanctuary of SS. Crocefisso dei Miracoli, a 1700s installation, it was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1919.

Picture by Sandro Santioli
Translated by Ann Mountford

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