Cortona's history, Il Girasole, Cortona, Tuscany, Italy

	Cortona is one of the oldest Cities in Italy. There are many legends and stories about its origins, the most popular says that Dardano of Troy was the founder. the importance of the City is shown through a famous local quote: Cortona: The Grandmother of Rome.
More realistically Cortona was a Fortified town founded by the Umbrians almost 3000 years ago. The Umbrians, together with the Oscans and the Faliscans, settled in a large area in central Italy. Later Cortona became a very important and prosperous town, between the VIII and VII Cen B.C. Cortona was, in fact, one of the 12 Lucumonies - a sort of Etruscan federation - togheter with Arezzo, Caere, Chiusi, Perugia, Populonia, Roselle, Tarquinia, Vetulonia, Volsini, Volterra and Vulci.
	The Etruscans left us many and great artifacts that witness their prosperity in Cortona: such as the large and impressive wall that measures over 2.280 meters that circles the town, and the tombs in the surrounding country side. The Tanella di Pitagora that dates V Cen. B.C., the Melone I of Il Sodo, and the recently discovered Melone II that dates back to the VI Cen B.C. are only the most known of the many Etruscan sites of the area. The incredible amount of archeological treasures -buccheros, bronzes or jewels, that are kept in the Museo dell'Accademia Etrusca, such as the bronze Etruscan Lamp, V Cen B.C. make this one of the richest museum in Tuscany.
The decline of Etruscans didn't mean the decline of Cortona. Cortona became a Roman colony at the time of Lucio Cornelio Silla, around the III cen b.C. In that period -june 24 217 B.C.- this area witnessed one of the bloodiest battle of the Punic Wars, The Trasimeno Lake battle, fought between Consul Flaminio and Hannibal. The tradition says that places like Ossaia or Sepoltaglia are named after this battle, from "ossa - bones" and "sepolto -buried" . Then, during the barbarian invasions of the 553 Cortona was sacked and destroyed by the Goths. The next recordings we have about Cortona are related to the XIII Cen., when Cortona became a Ghibellinian free City State, with his own currency.
	After the prosperous reign of the Etruscans, Cortona experienced a long dark and relatively uneventful period in its history, until the Medieval times. From 1325 to 1409 the Ranieri-Casali family successfully ruled the town . After being conquered by Ladislaus, king of Naples in 1409, Cortona was sold to the Medici in 1411, then from 1737 was under the house of Lorraine and later in 1860 became part of the Italian kingdom.
Information for this site was compiled through the use of "Cortona In Context" written by Philancy N. Holder and the help of Martin Atwood, both of them great friends, writers and acquired Cortonese. This book is available in this site on the books page.

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