Pescia

Infobox CityIT
img_coa = Pescia-Stemma.png|130px img_coa_small = yes official_name = Comune di Pescia
region = Tuscany
province = Pistoia (PT)
elevation_m = 62
area_total_km2 = 79
population_as_of = 2008
population_total = 19.453
population_density_km2 = 221
timezone = CET, UTC+1
coordinates = coord|43|54|N|10|41|E
frazioni = Medicina, Fibbialla, Aramo, San Quirico, Castelvecchio, Stiappa, Pontito, Sorana, Vellano, Pietrabuona, Collodi, Veneri, Chiodo
telephone = 0572
postalcode = 51017, 51012, 51010
gentilic = Pesciatini ("Pesciatins")
saint = St. Dorothea
day = 6 February
mayor = Antonio Abenante (since June 2004)
website = [http://www.pescia.it www.pescia.it]

Pescia (pron. /IPA|'peʃʃa/) is an Italian city in the region Tuscany, Pistoia province, with about 19.453 inhabitants, 63 mt (213 ft) a.s.l

Description

Pescia is an Italian municipality, which is famous for its "Flower Market" and the "Adventures of Pinocchio" (Carlo Collodi). It is located in a central zone between the cities Lucca and Florence, also near to Pisa. It is a municipality in the province of Pistoia, with a surface of 79 km². The city is situated on the banks of the homonymous river "Pescia".

The city has two different centres: the first one for lay and commercial activities on the left bank of the river and the second one for religious activities on the right bank. In the first one there is the castle and the square and in the second one there is the cathedral.

The city has also little villages on the Pesciatin mounts. Jean Charles Sismondi called Pesciatin mounts “Pesciatin Switzerland” because these mounts seemed similar to his Swiss mounts. All these villages are similar: they have (or had) walls, a little church and a tower, which has always become the church bell tower. The names of these villages are: Medicina, Fibbialla, Aramo, San Quirico, Castelvecchio, Stiappa, Pontito, Sorana, Vellano and Pietrabuona. Other villages of the comune are Collodi, Veneri, Alberghi and Chiodo.

The most important buildings of the city are "Palace Palagio", "Palace Della Barba", the "Dome", the Communal Palace and the City Library. Another important building is the "Old Flower Market" (1951) for its modern architecture.

Economic activities in and around the city are: flower growing (carnations) and paper production. Pescia is famous all over the world for its flower growing and sale (it is called “The city of flowers”). It is enough to remember the sale relations, which Pescia has with Belgium. Paper production is a very old activity in Pesciatin zone, and nowadays many paper factories produce paper of good quality and sell it to all Italy. In Pietrabuona there is the "Museum of Paper".

Pescia is an important school centre in its zone. In the city there are three professional high schools: economical, agrarian and graphic-touristic high school, and four cultural high schools: classical, scientific, linguistic and psico-pedagogic high school.

History of the city

According to some archaeological excavations, archaelogs think, that Lombards here built the first settlement on the river banks. The name of the city comes from a Lombard word, which means “river”.

Lucca occupied and destroyed Pescia during the 13^th century, but Pesciatins quickly rebuilt their city. During the entire Middle Ages Florence and Lucca contended for the city, because the commune of Pescia (under the Lucchese control) was located on the border between the two republics. In 1339, after almost ten years of war, Florence occupied it and expelled the Ghibellines. Pescia had already joined the fights between Guelphs and Ghibellines.

The economy of the city was founded on the mulberry cultivation and on the silkworm breeding, about which a legend said that it was imported in Europe for the first time by a Pesciatin trader, Buonvicini, from the same family of the monk who collaborated and died together with Girolamo Savonarola in Florence. Only at the end of that century (15^th c.) the town overcame the demographic and economical depression which followed the black plague.

At the end of 17^th century the Grand-duke of Tuscany declared Pescia “City of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In the 19^th c. the silk production was so important that Pescia was called "the little Manchester of Tuscany". The economy of the town dropped after a commercial conflict between France and Italy (1888). The passage of Napoleon highly damaged the economy of the city, because he substituted silk with sugar beet.

Since 1925 Pesciatins found an alternative economic source in cultivating and trading flowers and olive plants (since the end of the 19^th c.). Bombardaments during World War II highly damaged Pescia, but the city was quickly rebuilt, and then the citizens built the Old Flower Market, and the world flower sale began to become international.

Communal administration

* Mayor: Antonio Abenante, since June 2004.

Words

*Inhabitants: Pesciatins
*Adjective of the city: Pesciatin

Twin cities

* Nerja, ESP
* Oullins, FRA

External links

* [http://www.comune.pescia.pt.it Comune di Pescia (Official page)]