History
Thanks to its privileged geographic position and to its morphological richness in bays and creeks , Argentario promontory has always been a safe berthing for the ancient sailing people. It is quite likely that the Phoenician navigators settled down on the Southern coast, where nowadays lie Porto Ercole and Feniglia Beach, and in fact the latter’s toponym seems to have a Phoenician origin). Also Etruscan people, established in the surroundings in a great part of Maremma, seem to have visited Argentario and take advantage of its beauties, comforts and fruits. However Argentario’s history comes to be better known as Romans took the Etruscan place in ruling in Etruria. Romans showed a great interest for Argentario and its vicinity, for the beauty of the places, but above all for their closeness to Rome. A rich and powerful family, the Domizi Enobarbis, settled down in Argentario, precisely in Santa Liberata, where they built a sumptuous villa on the coast. The actual name of the promontory is to be found for the first time in a short poem of 416 DC by Latin poet Rutilio Namaziano. After he was crowned “Holy Roman Emperor” by Leo III, Charles donated Monte Argentario together with Orbetello, Cosa and Feniglia to the Abbey of Tre Fontane (Ad Aquas Salvias). At the end of 13th century, this territory became a concession to a powerful Sienese feudal family, the Aldobrandeschi. In many Papal bulls of that time Porto Ercole is often reminded as a possession, but it seems that there are no hints at all for what concerns Porto Santo Stefano. In 1414, after a period of occupation by the king of Naples Ladislao, Siena came once again to be ruling over Argentario, this time taking real care of the safety of the promontory. The Venetian Agnolo Morosini gained the concession of this territory with the condition-obligation to set a fortification system on it. Argentiera tower, only one built by the Sienese among all the other Spanish ones, was built in 1442. but the non-fortification of Porto Ercole and Morosini’s withdrawal from the tasks beforehand commissioned induced Siena to change leader of this concession. Unfortunately, those who followed could not administrate Argentario in the proper way, and unattended as well as Morosini the built of fortifications against corsairs overrunning in the Mediterranean, and in 1542 Porto Ercole was entirely sacked by the incursions of Khair Ad-Din, aka Barbarossa. In the same period the Italian wars between French and Spanish influenced directly Monte Argentario, as the Spanish, after the surrender of Siena, the fall of Florentine Republic and the restoration of the Medicean family, ceded the town of Siena together with all its possessions to Cosimo I, reserving for themselves the properties of Orbetello and Monte Argentario up to Talamone, which will be jointed together as Stato dei Reali Presidi in 1557 by Filippo II.
Filippo II started his ruling role by building many fortifications against Turkish attacks. Therefore he decided to built some fortresses in Porto Ercole, beginning with Forte Filippo, named after the king’s name, built on the homonymous hill dividing Porto Ercole from Cala Galera and whose construction was finished by Camerini in 1563. La Rocca is the widest military fortress of Argentario, built on the top of a hill facing Monte Filippo; Forte Stella, so-names after its star-like shape, was built mainly as a sighting outpost, on the ruins of an old pre-existing fortress, and Forte S. Caterina, an auxiliary fortress to Forte Filippo. In Porto S. Stefano, at the very centre of the actual town we can find the Fortezza, a military construction of high levels, whose construction was completed during the first years of 17th century. But we shall not forget to mention all those sighting towers, located all along the coast, from the Northern to the Southern side of the promontory, such as Torre Avoltore, Torre Ciana, Torre delle Cannelle, Torre di Cala Piatti, Torre Lividonia. The Spanish domination on Argentario ceased in 1714, as a consequence of the Spanish succession war and the consequent treatises of Utrecht and Rastadt (1713 and 1714).
Stato dei Presidi came under Austrian domination. After about 20 years spent in relative tranquillity, Austria would lose these territories during the Polish war of succession. The 1738 treatise of Vienna decreed the cession of Stato dei Presidi to the Spanish Bourbon family, later Bourbons of Naples. The Hispanic-Bourbonist rule over Stato dei Presidi ceased in 1815, with the 1815 treatise of Vienna , when the French gained possession of the whole Tuscany, and put as a governor of Presidi the Lorena Dynasty, grand dukes of Tuscany. During these historic events, Porto S. Stefano had gained such a power, both economic and demographic, that in 1842, Leopoldo II of Lorena detached Argentario from Orbetello, forming two distinct communities and Porto S. Stefano became the chief town of Argentario. The final historic act of this promontory took place in March 1860, when Tuscany voted in favour of its annexation to Regno di Sardegna and therefore to Regno d'Italia. (Moscati, 1988).
