The municipality of Palaia is an agricultural centre in the province of Pisa. It is at 240 m asl of altitude and has a population of about 4500 inhabitants. For those who cross the road separating Pisa from Florence, Palaia gives the opportunity to admire the landscape's beauties and its noteworthy historical monuments.

In effect, inside the town, the XIII-century St. Maria's Church, the XVI-century Civica Tower and the Romanesque-Gothic fashioned San Martin's Parish can be visited.
The latter, which is located not far from the downtown, is a brick work building decorated with small arches and a three-portal façade, and it reflects the division in three naves on the inside. The gate to Palaia, above which a cuspidate bell tower stands out, is of medieval origin, too.
Many villages of the territory have Etruscan-Roman origins, but it was since the Middle Ages that information on this municipality started to appear in chronicles. Since the year 1000, the Castle of Palaia was at the centre of a series of quarrels among Lucca, Pisa and Florence.
This was mainly due to its peculiar transitory position between the Val d' Era and the Valdarno. Three German emperors were called to intervene in settling the dispute about the possession of this village. In 1191, 1209 and 1355, Henry VI, Otto IV and Charles IV, respectively, gave the political power to Pisa, but, at the same time, they granted the possession of half the castle to the Lucca's Episcopate.
The power of Pisa consolidated around the mid-XIII century and it marked the passage of Palaia from the Guelfs part, inherited by Lucca, to the Ghibelline party. The town's support to king Manfredi's war against the Papal States retorted against its inhabitants. In 1266, after the Ghibelline troops were severely defeated by the papal troops in Benevento, the inhabitants of Palaia were excommunicated for seven years.
In 1406, the city took advantage of the Florentine siege in Pisa to surrender to Florence together with the other castles of the Val d' Era and the Pisan Hills . With many of them, the town encouraged the occupation by the Visconti family when the troops arrived from Milan in Tuscany to fight against the "city of the lily" and it organized the 1495's rebellion.
However, its destiny did not change and Palaia remained under the control of the Tuscan Grand Duchy (born in 1513) both during the Medici's government and after the arrival of the Lorraine family. In 1860, the town was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.