What is Massa Marittima known for?

Thirteenth-century fresco at the Fonti dell'Abbondanza, a tree hung with phalluses, rediscovered in 2000 and unique in medieval Italian art. The patron saint, buried in the Duomo, whose marble shrine was carved by Goro di Gregorio in 1324. Crossbow contest in fifteenth-century costume between the three terzieri of the town, run every May and August.

Where is Massa Marittima?

Massa Marittima is a comune in the province of Grosseto, Tuscany region of Italy, about 124 kilometers from Livorno.

Tuscany · Grosseto

Massa Marittima

A medieval mining townin the Colline Metallifere, free commune from 1255 to 1337, whose cathedral holds the relics of San Cerbone.

124 km / 77 mi

Nearest hub (Livorno)

8,139

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Massa Marittima sits on an isolated hillin the Colline Metallifere, the Tuscan hills that supplied copper and silver from Etruscan times. Despite the name, the sea is roughly twenty kilometers away. The town was a free commune from 1255 to 1337, and the buildings on Piazza Garibaldi still date from that century: the Duomo di San Cerbone in Pisan Romanesque, the Palazzo del Podestà, the Palazzo Comunale. The Fonti dell'Abbondanza, the public fountains built in 1265, hold a thirteenth-century fresco of a tree hung with phalluses, the Albero della Fecondità, rediscovered in 2000 and now one of the most studied wall paintings of medieval Tuscany. The Balestro del Girifalco, a crossbow contest in fifteenth-century costume, runs twice a year between the three terzieri of the town. Mining gave way to tourism after the seams ran out; the centro storico kept its medieval grid intact.

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Gallery

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Known for

Duomo di San Cerbone
Thirteenth-century Pisan Romanesque cathedral on Piazza Garibaldi, holding the relics of the saint and the Arca di San Cerbone by Goro di Gregorio.
Fonti dell'Abbondanza
Public fountains built in 1265 with the Albero della Fecondità fresco, a tree hung with phalluses, rediscovered in 2000.
Palazzo del Podestà
Thirteenth-century communal palace on Piazza Garibaldi, now seat of the Museo Archeologico with the Maestà by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
Torre del Candeliere
Thirteenth-century watchtower above the Città Nuova, connected to the old walls by a flying arch, open for the panorama across the Maremma.
Museo della Miniera
Mining museum with reconstructed tunnels that document the extraction of copper, silver and pyrite from the Colline Metallifere.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the months Massa Marittima opens up. The Balestro del Girifalco runs on the fourth Sunday of May and again on the second Sunday of August, and the town fills with archers in costume from the three terzieri. July and August are hot inland and the centro storico thins in the afternoon; the Tyrrhenian beaches at Follonica are half an hour away by car. November through March is quiet, the mining museum keeps reduced hours, and the morning mist rising off the Pecora valley turns the Duomo into a silhouette from the Torre del Candeliere.