The town of Castellina Marittima is in the province of Pisa and lies among red galestro rocks that give its landscape a peculiar appearance. It has a population of about 2,000 inhabitants and the wonderful Medicean Castle has been preserved in excellent conditions here.

It has been possible to hypothesize a very active human presence since the Etruscan times by studying the techniques of extraction of alabaster in the caves near Castellina. The historical memory lined to the activity of excavation is present in the Alabaster Ecomuseum. Here, all the instruments used in centuries for the excavation, the extraction and the manufacture of alabaster, namely a kind of stone also called "Bianco di Castellina" are kept here.
Anyway, besides the hypotheses the researchers have made, a reliable documentation appeared in the X century, only, in some notarial deeds regarding the transfer of lands. A XIII-century status that has unfortunately been lost, also testified the acquisition of the autonomous communal status of the village. This information is confirmed by a still existing document dating to 1163 where the nomination of two Consuls as representatives of Castellina is cited.
In the Middle ages, the village was an huge castle, as its geographical position required. In effect, not only is Castellina near the Pisan coasts, but it is also set in a favourable position at 375 m. a.s.l., which allows it to control the Emilia way from above. This is also why the Republic of Pisa bought it in 1267. Yet, at the half of the XIV century, Ugo di Giovanni della Gherardesca, the local ruler, started an anti-Republican rebellion that flanked his brothers' actions in Maremma. The revolt was definitively suppressed in 1406, only.
In the same year, Castellina was put under Florence's dominion and the city gave it the chance to issue its autonomous statutes, some of which (the ones going from 1522 to 1584) are still kept near the State Archive of Florence and the Archiepiscopal Archive of Pisa. Under Ferdinando II de' Medici's rule, the castle became a marquisate. At this time, namely at the half of the XVII century, a violent plague epidemic raged over the area.
A branch of the Medici family first and, when it decayed, other aristocratic families administered the marquisate until the Risorgimento, when Castellina actively participated to the uprisings of 1848 and 1859 when numerous volunteers joined the cause of the Unity of Italy. Castellina was among the first towns to celebrate the escape of the Lorraine and to plant the "freedom tree". It annexed to the Kingdom of Italy with an almost unanimous plebiscite in 1860.