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HISTORY |
Casentino valley with San Godenzo in the Mugello
area. It takes its name from the Latin name for the torrent Staggia. The first
indications about the village of Stia were found in a register called the
“Regesto Camaldolese”, in which in 1053 the Plebe S. Mariae de Staia and later
on in 1093 a Casale de Stia (a hamlet) are mentioned.
In the Middle Ages Stia became a market town in the county of Porciano and the
residence of a branch of the Counts of Guidi family, called the Guidi family of
“Palagio”, in reference to a magnificent house, the Palagio castle indeed, built
in 1230 on the bank of the torrent Staggia. Around the castle a group of houses
was built joining the already existing village upstream of Old Stia.
The Guidi family of Palagio was forced to hand over its properties (castle,
village
and land in Stia) to the Republic of Florence in 1402. For a long time the
history of Stia was thus linked to that of Florence, first to the Medici family
and later to the Habsburg Lorena Dynasty. The registered population of Stia
amounted to 2901 inhabitants in 1840. It developed rapidly thanks to the wool
manufacturing industry, which made Stia a very important wool centre. It is here
that the famous woolen fabric called ‘panno del Casentino’ was born.
In the early 1900’s there were about 500 workers employed in the ‘Lanificio’ (wool
mill). Stia grew with the sound of the factory siren and when the big wool mill
had to close down, the negative effects were certainly felt.
Today Stia has found in tourism a new incentive for its development. The past
and the present, economic progress, the protection of the natural habitat,
traditions and history, all co-exist in the best possible way at Stia. |
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