DATE OF FOUNDATION
1986
MEMBERSHIP OF LITAB
1986
PRESIDENT
Leonardi Manuel
It was thanks to Francesco I De’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, that the history of the crossbowmen in our city began, as it was at his behest that, with a proclamation in 1579, the Military Administrative Court, war material, militias, and, in particular, the crossbowmen, who were still the central force of the army, were transferred from Florence to the fortress of Terra del Sole.
There are more than 40 passionate crossbowmen in the Terra del Sole company, including women, not counting the supporting members who have been enthusiastically following them since 1971, the year of its establishment.
The Company is the union of the crossbowmen of the two districts of the fortified town of Terra del Sole, Borgo Romano and Borgo Fiorentino, who battle each other every year on the first Sunday in September in the central square, competing in the Palio dedicated to Santa Reparata.
December 2014 marked the 450th anniversary of the founding of Terra del Sole: a fortified city born of political and economic ambition and a modern architectural vision, it was the capital of the province of Romagna Toscana for more than two centuries.
It was the realization of the humanistic dream of the ideal city according to Cosimo De’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. A chronicler of the time, Giovan Battista Adriani, wrote that at the time of the founding ceremony (December 8, 1564), the sky opened and a ray of light illuminated the land as if the heavens wanted to see it come into being, hence its name.
Over the years, Terra del Sole has retained its original shape and Renaissance charm. Consisting of four corner bastions, S. Maria and S. Martino guarding Porta Romana and the castle of the Captain of the Square or the Governor, which face the valley, and the bastions of S. Reparata and S. Andrea guarding Porta Fiorentina and the castle of the Captain of the Artillery, which faces the mountains, the two palaces are connected by a village that runs through them longitudinally. On the large central Piazza d’Armi, the church of S. Reparata faces the Palazzo Pretorio with the courthouse, the dungeons, the spiral staircase, the torture chamber, and the Bargello quarters.
With a Ministerial Decree of 1965, Terra del Sole was declared “of considerable public interest” and in 1997 the World Monument Fund selected “the complex architectural documentary system of the Medici prisons of the criminal archive,” placing it among the 100 most important monuments in the world to be protected and saved.