Volterra after the 11th century

Around the year 1000, Volterra, ravaged by the Hungarian raids and by the war between Berengarius I and the marquis Albert of Tuscany, experienced a short diaspora that caused the development of some villages near the castle walls.

Yet, in the first half of the XII century, the town had already recovered its strength and had been organized as a free town. It was in conflict with its own episcopate for the right of extraction of salt, sulphur, vitriol and alum from the mines that fostered the economy of the territory.
Nevertheless, once it established its supremacy, the town started to worry about how to restrain the growing pressure of big Tuscan cities like Pisa, Florence and Siena. Still in the XII century, new walls substituted the ancient Etruscan ones and they surrounded the houses, leaving meadows and fields outside. They are still visible today.
In the XIII century, the city was enriched with the majority of the structures that constitute its architectural patrimony today, among which there is the Palazzo del Popolo (the current Palazzo Pretorio) which was finished in 1257 and housed the "podestà".
Always in the first half of the XV century, both the Baptistery and the Cathedral underwent restoration works. The great architect Nicola Pisano was in charge of renovating the latter. Meanwhile, in the town the Belforti seigniory started to grow in opposition to the ecclesiastic authority. The epopee of this family ended in 1361, when its last member was publicly deposed and beheaded after he sold the city to the Republic of Pisa.
After formally becoming an autonomous republic, Volterra informally passed under the control of Florence with the help of the Florentines themselves. In effect, after freeing the city from the Pisan rule, Florence required to participate in the designation of the main political offices to transform Volterra into its main defensive stronghold against Siena.
herefore, the XV century was characterized by the numerous risings of the Volterra's inhabitants, culminating in the Allumiere war (1472) at the end of which the Florentine troops led by the Duke of Montefeltro besieged and pillaged the town.
Under the Florentine rule, the richest families of the city left and their properties were expropriated. Nonetheless, the interest of Lorenzo the Magnificent allowed the city to have its own donjon, a fortress required by this famous patron of the arts and built between 1472 and 1475 to protect the city from the incursions of Siena.
During this period, the influence of the Renaissance led the local nobles to restore and modify many of the buildings of the old city centre with the intervention of some renowned personalities of the Tuscan architecture, such as Michelozzo and Antonio da San Gallo.
The last act of rebellion by the inhabitants of Volterra against the Medici burst out in 1530. Then, the city definitively began its Grand-ducal experience, living a period of economic prosperity thanks to the commerce of alabaster and to the development of the agricultural activity.
In 1860, Volterra annexed to the Kingdom of Italy with a plebiscite. In the XX century, a strong demographic fall was registered and it was due to the moving of the population near the industrialized areas.
On the contrary, the city succeeded in preserving its ancient economical resources, the mines and the manufacture of the alabaster, to which the boom of tourism was added.