Grosseto

Grosseto developed as a successor to the ancient centre of Roselle, whose hilltop ruins lie outside the later city. The transfer of the bishopric in 1138 strengthened Grosseto's role as a religious centre. Its churches and religious communities developed over subsequent centuries, with buildings repeatedly reconstructed.

The Medici gave Grosseto a clear defensive role in southern Tuscany. In 1564, Cosimo I commissioned new walls to replace the medieval defences, and construction under Baldassarre Lanci began the next year. The stronghold guarded the southern border of the ruler's territory, with two principal gates regulating entry. Religious patronage accompanied this military landscape. The cathedral retained a fifteenth-century carved font and a painting by Matteo di Giovanni, while Franciscan and other convents provided further institutions. Grosseto's early modern importance thus rested on a combination of episcopal succession and deliberate fortification, turning an established town into a protected administrative and religious centre of the Maremma.