Travel to Gavorrano

It has always been an important mining centre, especially because of the exceptional purity of the pyrite extracted there.Stone quarries and the infrastructures for extracting and working the materiaL are to be seen throughout the territory.Currently,a part of the unused minig structres has been converted into a vast museum cmplex, the Parco Minerario e Naturalistico (Mineral and Nature Park) which provides an important contribution to a historic-cultural and touristic revival af the area. The original and history of the town are tied to the noble Pannochieschi family and its story. The tragic fate of Pia dè Tolomei, who was killed by her husband, Count Nello in the Castello di Pietra, has been recounted by Dante Alighieri in "The Divine Comedy" and the ruins of the castle retains its Medival architectural design: the square towers and the elliptical form of the walls of teh Keep can be recognized and many of the buildings, large palaces with towers, arches and doors within the walls are important examples from the Middle Ages. The church of San Giuliano was built at the end of the 18th century and contains an excellent marble sculpture of the Madonna with Child executed by Giovanni d'Agostino, the last of the great 14th century sculptors and master builder of the cathedrals in Siena and Arezzo. The small towns of Caldana, Ravi and Giuncarico are also worth a visit. Their old fortresses, churches and historic castles punctuate itineraries through a territory that is fascinating from a historic-artistic, environmental point of view and provides a backdrop of unspoiled nature. A series of Etruscan tombs, one dome-shaped and two of the ditch type, containing funeral appointments from the orientalizing period, have been found few kilometres from Giuncarico and complete this itinerary.