Suchergebnisse

[EN] The research about Tyrrhenian Tuscany fortifications – more than 150 structures studied with Anna Guarducci and Marco Piccardi – is a multidisciplinary and complex topic that requires methods and sources typical of geographical-historical research. This because of various environmental and landscape peculiarity of Tyrrhenian Tuscany and because of her historical sequence from Medieval Age to nowadays. In Tyrrhenian Tuscany – thanks to its strategic and business importance – although low population, cereal and pastoral "latifondo", the marshes and few settlements, a dense fortifications system was gradually developed until the unification of Italy. This study starts from the first researches on Maremma fortifications on Seventies-Eighties of last century, and they also begins from following studies concerning all coastal area or single places, buildings and small areas. This research take into consideration those researchs methods and subjects. But because of the study area extension a larger range of printed and unpublished sources was analyzed. The set of documents was composed by maps, iconographies, photographies, aerial photographies, territorial and literaly studies, etc. The political and administrative fragmentation of Tyrrhenian Tuscany explains the position of the sources (about fortifications) in libraries and archives of Tuscany (Massa, Lucca, Firenze, Pisa, Livorno, Piombino, Siena, Grosseto, Orbetello), of Italy (Genova, Modena, Roma e Napoli) and of foreign countries (Simancas, Parigi, Vienna e Praga); and in municipal and state or authorithy archives too. The partition expalains also the local and regional nature of the most studies. All these documents are often thematic and incomplete, and have been completed with the study of the present contexts (toponyms, buildings and direct evidences of inhabitants), in order to identify and locate the fortifications. This comparative analysis, together with measurements allowed by cartography, has allowed the recognition of the position of more than ...

The island of Elba, under the historical and architectural aspect, is known for the affairs concerning the Grand Ducal fortified town of Cosmopoli (Portoferraio) and for the Napoleonic events. Less known, but of great historical importance, has been the presence of Spanish, during the Tuscan Presidios, between 1557 to 1708. The fortifications of San Giacomo and Focardo in Longone (Porto Azzurro) date back to this period. The article illustrates the latest studies of these two Spanish Seventeenth-Century military architectures: there are summarized below, briefly, the most interesting emerged results, based on documents and cartographies, as well as observing and studying directly the architectures. It concludes with a comparison between some contemporary examples, with the purpose of determining influences and the role of these structures had in development of fortified architecture of XVII century.

Abstract
A geochemical study was conducted in a coastal plain in the Orbetello Lagoon area in southern Tuscany (Italy), acquiring new data on groundwater, lagoon water, and stream sediment for insights into the origin, distribution, and behaviour of mercury in a Hg-enriched carbonate aquifer. The main hydrochemical features of the groundwater are ruled by the mixing of Ca–SO4 and Ca–Cl continental fresh waters of the carbonate aquifer and Na–Cl saline waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea and Lagoon of Orbetello. Groundwater had highly variable Hg concentrations (< 0.1–11 μg/L) that were not correlated with the percentage of saline water, depth in the aquifer, or distance from the lagoon. This excluded the possibility that saline water could be the direct source of Hg in groundwater and responsible for release of the element through interaction with the carbonate lithologies of the aquifer. The origin of Hg in groundwater could be ascribed to the Quaternary continental sediments overlying the carbonate aquifer because i) high Hg concentrations were found in the continental sediments of the coastal plain and in the contiguous lagoon sediments; ii) waters from the upper part of aquifer had the highest Hg concentrations; iii) Hg levels in groundwater increased with increasing thickness of the continental deposits. The high Hg content in the continental and lagoon sediments is geogenic due to regional and local Hg anomalies and to sedimentary and pedogenetic processes. It can be assumed that i) water circulating in these sediments dissolves the solid Hg-bearing constituents and mobilises this element mainly as chloride complexes; ii) Hg-enriched water moves from the upper part of the carbonate aquifer due to the cone of depression generated by intense pumping of groundwater by fish farms in the study area.