Chiesina Uzzanese in Tuscany

The town of Chiesina Uzzanese, that has been autonomous since 1963, only, is in the province of Pistoia and it has a population of about 4,000 inhabitants. Its name comes from the ancient parish church of Santa Maria della Neve built around the first half of the XIX century.

The origin of the village dates to the XIII century, when a "ospitale" for wayfarers was built near the crossroads of two ancient tracks, one Etruscan and the other Roman. Yet, the surrounding territory was then quite insalubrious because of its closeness to the swamps of Fucecchio. A real development took place only from the construction of the bridge over the Pescia river in 1435 and thanks to the reclamation carried out in the modern age.
The first built-up areas started to rise between the XVI and the XVII centuries. In the XVIII century, the territory corresponding to the modern town already had about 1,500 inhabitants, but the works Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, ruler of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, settled in 1780 represented the definitive impulse to a population increase. It was thanks to the works financed by the Grand Duke that a drainage channel giving onto the Arno was built and the dam was pulled down this way accomplishing the main part of the reclamations.
The last works of 1931-33 produced a more definite organization. Fifty years later, Chiesina detached from the town of Uzzano and it became an autonomous town.