|  Abandoned for a long time, the farm of Paltratico, is now reborn. Paltratico was one of the first farms developed at the end of the eighteenth century in the immense property of the Pia Casa di Misericordia in the territory of Pisa. The new owners rediscovered the farm and its rich past and are bringing it to new splendor, making it the prime center of wine production of Castiglioncello, an area where man and nature have shaped a unique landscape.
The Ancient Period
The dilapidated walls of an ancient Etruscan fortress are still standing on Mount Carvoli. Not far from that a late Hellenistic necropolis (first half of the third – beginning of the first century BCE) was discovered in 2001, where numerous funereal equipments were also found and which are now at the Archeological Museum of Rosignano Marittimo.
The Pieve of Camaiano and the Middle Age
On the eastern hill of Paltratico rose the ancient Pieve of Camaiano, built on a pre-existing Roman settlement. The Pieve was dedicated to St. Jerusalem and St. John the Baptist, recorded for the first time in 958 CE, but most likely founded earlier, during the Longobard domination. Following the demographic crisis of the thirteenth century the religious building entered a decline, which culminated in its abandonment (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries). The Castle of Motorno is also medieval and its ruins are still visible on the homonymous hill northwest of the farm.
The Modern Age
The houses of Paltratico were built on land overlooking the Fine Valley. The view is stunning and changes with the passing of seasons.
“Paltratico” in the centuries
The word Paltratico seems to be derived from PALTA, bog. Perhaps this came from the presence of natural springs. The locality “Paltratico” is cited for the first time in a document dated 1377; two houses with garden were already present in Paltratico in 1561. Farmers have been working the land since the sixteenth century. Before that, at least since the fourteenth century the farm was essentially all pastures and forests, which the Pia Casa della Misericordia leased to shepherds from the surrounding Tuscan mountains, who spent the winter months here. During the sixteenth century, following Pisa’s defeat by Florence (1509),
several Florentine families settled here. The new immigrants introduced the Florentine custom of sharecropping, thus bringing to the area vineyards, olive groves and orchards. In 1784, the Archduke Peter Leopold Habsburg Lorena started a movement of reform suppressing all large land properties. At this time, the property of the Pia Casa della Misericordia (ca. 4150 hectares) was sold at auction.
Once transformed into a private property Paltratico was re-organized. A few years before, in 1780, the Archduke had liberalized logging. This started an intense season deforestation to make space for agricultural land. This process continue until the first decades of the 1800, when Paltratico was largely constituted by open fields cultivated by sharecroppers. It was at this time, that certain varieties of grapes and fruits, best suited to this type of cultivation, were introduced. The present management intends to maintain these rare varieties of grapes and reintroduce them in the wine-production.
Please click here for a chart of the owners and tenants of Paltratico during the past five centuries. |
