Volterra, known to the ancient Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy.
The Roman Theatre.Frescoes in the Cathedral.
History
The town was a Neolithic settlement and an important Etruscan center (Felathri) with an original civilization; it became a municipium in the Roman Age. The city was a bishop's residence in the fifth century and its episcopal power was affirmed during the twelfth century. With the decline of the episcopate, Volterra became a place of interest of the Florentines, whose forces conquered Volterra. Florentine rule was not always popular, and opposition occasionally broke into rebellion. These rebellions were defeated by Florence.
When the Florentine Republic fell in 1530, Volterra came under the control of the Medici family and later followed the history of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Main sights
Roman Theatre (1st century BC), excavated in the 1950s.
Rosso Fiorentino. Deposition. 1521. Oil on wood. 375 × 196 cm. Pinacoteca Comunale di Volterra, Italy. Pinacoteca (Art Gallery) in Palazzo Minucci-Solaini. The Gallery was founded in 1905 and consists mostly of works by Tuscan artists from 14th to 17th centuries. Includes Deposition by Rosso Fiorentino.
Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. It was enlarged in the thirteenth century after an earthquake. It houses a ciborium and some angels by Mino da Fiesole, a notable wood Deposition (1228), a masterwork of Romanesque sculpture and the Sacrament Chapel, with paintings by Santi di Tito, Giovanni Balducci and Agostino Veracini. In the center of the vault are fragments of an Eternal Father by Niccolò Circignani. Also noteworthy is the Addolorata Chapel, with a terracotta group attributed to Andrea della Robbia and a fresco of Riding Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli. In the nearby chapel, dedicate to the Very Holy Name of Jesus, is a table with Christ's monogram, allegedly painted by Bernardine of Siena. The rectangular bell tower is from 1493.
Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, with thousands of funeral urns dating back to the Hellenistic and Archaic periods. Main attractions are the bronze statuette "Shadow of the Night" and the sculpted effigy of an Etruscan couple in terra cotta.
The Etruscan walls, including the well-preserved Porta dell'Arco (3rd-2dn centuries BC) and Porta Diana gates.
Outside the city, in direction of Lajatico, is the MediciVilla di Spedaletto. Also in the neighborhood, in the Valle Bona area, are excavations of Etruscan tombs.
Volterra in literature
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Volterra features in Horatius, the celebrated poem by Lord Macaulay - 'From lordly Volaterrae/Where scowls the far-famed hold/Piled by the hands of giants/For godlike kings of old'.
Volterra in popular fiction
Volterra is an important location in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. In the books, Volterra is home to the Volturi, a coven of powerful and ancient vampires.
Volterra is the site of Stendhal's famously disastrous encounter in 1819 with his beloved Countess Mathilde Dembowska: she recognised him there, despite his disguise of new clothes and green glasses, and was furious. This is the central incident in his book On Love.
Volterra is mentioned repeatedly in British author Dudley Pope's Captain Nicholas Ramage historical nautical series. Gianna, the Marchesa of Volterra and the fictional ruler of the area, features in the first twelve books of the sixteen-book series. The books chart the progress and career of Ramage during the Napoleonic wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, providing readers with well-scripted articulate details of life aboard sailing vessels and conditions at sea of that time.
Volterra is the site where the novel Chimaira by the Italian author Valerio Massimo Manfredi takes place.
Volterra is featured in Jhumpa Lahiri's latest collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth. It is the location where Hema and Kaushik, the protagonists of the eponymous short story, take a trip to.
Media related to Volterra at Wikimedia Commons
