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It was built on a hilly crest among
the valleys of the river Era and Cecina,
surrounded by a double belt of walls (the
Etruscan and the Medieval one). Volterra, in the province
of Pisa is one of the most important
centre of Tuscany, both for its monuments that testify
the civilization that settled during thirty centuries and
the working of Tuscan alabaster that nowadays is are considered
one of the most typical and traditional products of the Italian
art-craft.
Volterra it is a town still distant form the stressful rhythm
of current life. Those who arrive here have immediately the
impression to be in a particular town, revival of an ancient
time, trough its narrow streets of a Medieval village, its
old crafts of Etruscan town.
Its has a predominant Medieval aspect, keeping many traces
of the Etruscan period such as the Porta
all'Arco (a gate), the Acropoli,
the walls still present in some parts of the town
The Roman presence is testified
by the important traces of the Roman
Theatre of the Augustan Age, spas and a big
water cistern.
The Medieval feature of the
town is not only remarkable in the urban evidence but it
may be found above all in palaces, in tower-houses and churches: Priori
Palace of XIII c., the Palace
of Pretorio, with its crenellated Tower
of the Porcellino (Little Pig) Pig, the pair of towers
of Buonparenti and the Bonaguidi family, the
Cathedral of XII c. that still have remains of Medieval
and Renaissance works, the Baptistry,
an old work of XIII c. streaked with Volterran stone.
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