page_title: Ports of the Republic of Siena
section_title: Difficulty in managing and granting the Talamone port
hierarchical_section_title: Ports of the Republic of Siena / History / Difficulty in managing and granting the Talamone port
caption_attribution_description: Rocca di Talamone, Talamone, Grosseto, Italy
context_page_description: The Republic of Siena in its progressive territorial growth saw its borders expanding especially in the territories of southern Tuscany in the current province of Grosseto. The possession of an "access to the sea" by Siena was therefore a natural continuation of its expansionary and commercial policy in the Maremma with the conquest of the ports of Talamone, Porto Ercole and Porto Santo Stefano.
  In order to ensure access to maritime traffic and a competitive sales network, Siena already tried to secure the use of the Grosseto river port in the 13th century. However, the port, swept away during the 14th century by the violent flood that removed the course of the Ombrone from the city, never had any development, also due to the incorrect economic policy of Siena and the lack of a productive background.
context_section_description: With the descent of the Emperor Henry in Tuscany there were various reprisals against the Florentine merchants in Genoa and, probably for the same reason of damaging the Florentine trade, some Sienese Ghibelline exiles attacked Talamone in 1312; in that moment without defenses.
  It took the Republic of Siena two years to regain control of the port.
  However, already in 1320 there was a new aggression, this time on the part of Genoese exiles, who sacked Talamone with a large quantity of wheat bound for Siena, burdened at that time with a famine.
  In the following years the Municipality of Siena committed itself to taking the necessary measures to avoid new foreign incursions, together with the granting of privileges to the inhabitants of the port in order to encourage the growth of the Talamone population. Despite the efforts, the population and the safety of the airport turned out to be a failure also considering the pressing presence of malaria. The port was forced to suffer a new hostile occupation in 1328 by the army of the king of Sicily who tried to take Grosseto as well.
  Given the impossibility of managing the port in a fruitful way, the government of the Nine opted for the concession of Talamone for rent to the Duke of Calabria through his ducal vicar.
  In 1339 the port was granted for eight years to the Genoese Manfredi del Fiesco, count of Lavagna. However, due to some breaches of the agreements, the contract was canceled and the maritime port returned to the direct control of Siena.
  Following new clashes against the Pisans due to the influence on Lucca, Florence renewed the agreements with the Republic of Siena for the rights of Florentine merchants in the port of Talamone in 1340; situation that was repeated in 1356.
  Upon learning of the treaty with Florence, Pisa threatened to occupy the port and tried several times to attack it, failing thanks to Florence's commitment to protect its maritime trade.
  However, once the peace agreement was signed with Pisa in 1364, the Florentine merchants preferred to leave the more distant Sienese port in favor of the Pisan one, despite the pressure exerted by Siena to maintain Florence's commercial traffic.
  In a period of strong political instability in Siena, more privileges were therefore decided for anyone who wanted to live in Talamone and cultivated the land and the passing merchants, so as to remedy the damage caused by the loss of Florentine maritime traffic. The entire area of the Sienese Maremma was however seriously neglected and due to the strong emigration the population of Talamone, Magliano and Grosseto was by now decimated.
  In this situation in 1375 the Sienese coast suffered several looting by Pisan troops, which later occupied Talamone together with the papal militias. Due to contrasts between Siena and the papacy due to the support given to Perugia in the riots against the Papal State, the papal occupation lasted until 1378, the year in which the Republic of Siena regained control of the port by paying a large sum of money to Urban VI.
  The following year, due to conflicts with Pisa and Genoa for control of Sardinia, the Catalans concluded a treaty with the Republic of Siena for the use of the port of Talamone, guaranteeing their merchants the same rights that were granted to the Florentines, but with lower duties.
  Once the Sienese port was left by the Catalans, failing to cover the defense and guards with maritime trade, in 1385 it was decided to grant the port to a company that also took care of maintaining the defensive structures.
  In 1399 various measures were approved for the rehabilitation of the Maremma and the reclamation of the lands of Grosseto, so as to finally take full advantage of the great fertility of the agricultural areas.
  With the conquest of Livorno in 1404 and that of Pisa in 1406 by Florence, the modernization of Talamone became more pressing for Siena to avoid the decadence of the port. In those years King Ladislaus of Naples tried to bring the Republic of Siena to his part in anti-Florentine function, but given the rejection of the Sienese
caption: Medieval fortress of Talamone
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 7D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2013:06:22 08:11:18", "Image ExifOffset": "220", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[42, 82967/2500, 0/0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[11, 39973/5000, 0/0]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "18685/368", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[16, 30, 26]", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "GPS GPSDate": "2013-06-04", "Image GPSInfo": "696", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1002", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4836", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "13", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:06:04 17:33:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:06:04 17:33:02", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "915241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7400879/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "66/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "16", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4163", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2756", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5184000/907", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal"}