Welcome to Arezzo!

 At first sight it looks like one of the many Medieval Tuscan cities, but in reality its origins date back to the VI century B. C.

At that time the urban site was situated on the top of the hill, where you can now find the ‘Prato’ Gardens.

In Etruscan times it was quite an important centre, one of the twelve ‘lucumoniae’, so the Etruscan city-states were called. The statues of the Chimera and the Minerva are outstanding examples of their art and their ability to work metals.

Later on it became a Roman town and was quite important for its strategic location in the centre of Italy. We can still see some remains of a Roman amphitheatre in town and some famous vases, called ‘coralline’ for their reddish colour, in the Archeological Museum.

During the Middle Ages Arezzo was a free Commune. In the XI^th century improved living conditions and a flourishing economy made it strong enough to begin  a policy of expansion, which led to the conquest of nearby centres of habitation in the XIII^th century. But the gradual expansion of the dominion of Arezzo came into contrast with the economic and political interests of nearby Siena and  Florence.

New buildings and churches were built in medieval times and in the Renaissance and many artists worked in town:

Piero della Francesca, Cimabue and Vasari are among them.

But Arezzo suffered several defeats and lost in the end, together with its independence, most of his cultural and artistic autonomy: in fact from 1434 to 1859 Arezzo was under the Florentine dominion, first under the Medici and then the House of Lorraine.

At the beginning of the XIX^th century the town structure started to change, some new roads were built and some public works were financed among which the drainage Fossombroni of the marshy Valdichiana - one of the valleys around the town - and the building of a railway  station, which were fundamental to the future development of its economic life.

In 1881 the first bank was founded and not much later, in 1907, the first big industry was established producing railway wagons. But we have to wait until  the 1960's for an industrialization on a wider scale: some quite big textile industries but mainly firms producing golden and silverware. Perhaps it is the craftmanship of their forefathers that has inspired the numerous goldsmiths in Arezzo until today.