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Landscape influence on the development of the medieval city-state of Siena, Italy
No full textThis paper examines how the landscape has influenced the development of the medieval–early Renaissance city-state of Siena, Italy.
Siena is a hill-top town with a historic ~2 km2 wide core surrounded by ancient city walls. It still preserves the medieval urban plan and
Gothic architecture, and its inhabitants keep ancient traditions alive. It is built on Pliocene, loosely cemented, calcareous, marine,
porous sandstone that overlies impermeable marine calcareous silty clay. The town is limited on three sides by steep slopes indented
by secondary deep, narrow, small valleys. The forth side to the north is a gently sloping terrain along the hilltop leading to distant highlands.
This geomorphologic setting had been beneficial to the development of the town during mediaeval times because readily
defendable and, being far from wet, unhealthy, malaria-infested lowlands, it was crossed by a major medieval pilgrimage route (Via
Francigena) to Rome. However the hilltop location presented difficulties such as scarce availability of water and limited space to
expand.
Siena tried valiantly to adapt to the demand of expanding population and international markets. Two major underground aqueducts
were built for a total of about 25 km long tunnels, to bring water both to the centre of the walled town mainly for human consumption
and to a major fountain (fonte) complex at the base of the hill that was the major medieval industrial site. However, water was never
plentiful and became totally insufficient for the expanded mechanized industrialization of cloth-making that started in mid 14th century.
Siena could not compete with other towns, like the neighbouring Florence, endowed with fluvial hydraulic power.
Like other hill-towns Siena also had the problem of limited space for its growing population inside city walls. Within the city the space
was and still is maximized in two main ways. One is to level hilltops for constructions, such as the Cathedral, or cut terraces into the
easily quarried soft sandstone for buildings. The other is to build retaining walls in the upper parts of the secondary, indenting, narrow
valleys and partially filing their apex, as it was done during the last century to obtain the stadium and associated athletic facilities, or,
in the medieval times, to build the famous Palazzo Pubblico (Town Hall) and its antecedent, sloping semi-arcuate (Pecten-shell like)
public square
Slope deposits of the calcareous costal hills along the gulf of Orosei, NE Sardinia – karstic and periglacial influences
No full textLandscape influence on the development of the city-state of Siena, Italy
No full textSi analizzano le caratteristiche geologiche del territorio senese che hanno avuto una ricaduta sullo sviluppo della Siena medieval
Alluvial fans at Cala Gonone (Sardinia), a fast developing touristic village: origins, hazards and potential risks
Full text linkThe study area of Cala Gonone in NE Sardinia (Italy) consists of a wide terraced re-entrance/valley crowned inland by carbonate hills and, near the coast bounded laterally and partly floored by thin basaltic lava lying over carbonate bedrock. In this re-entrance, several inland alluvial fans (500 m length by 700 m wide) have developed, and a local ~ 30 m high, about 10 m wide (thick), 400 m long scarp body-remnant of semi-consolidated alluvial fan deposits is exposed along the coast. The fans experience depositional events mostly developed during the late Pleistocene. They although nowadays dormant may be reactivated by major rainstorms during strong climate changes. In these last few decades, the touristic village of Cala Gonone has been rapidly expanding over the mid to lower parts of two coalescing alluvial fans (Stadium and Gustui) and along the coastal marine scarp edge (Palmasera alluvial fan system). The village thus may become exposed to natural hazards if extreme climatic conditions may re-occur. Moreover, rock falls and the instability of the costal scarp due to wave erosion may add addition hazards for habitations built near the scarp crest and visitors to the frontal replenished beach. As commonly occurring elsewhere since antiquity, the risk perception of such events is low because of the centennial, millennial of longer recurrence. Such perception does not negate the hazards but a long event recurrence may be accepted as a reasonable risk for the human’s activity. Nevertheless, serious consideration should be given to potential problems and plan and build for amelioration and defense. The evidence of what environmentally did and could still happen in the Cala Gonone and similar other area is in part clearly imprinted on the landscape: geology, geomorphology, and relative details in the stratigraphy and sedimentology of the deposits
Late Miocene Paleogeography of the Monte Soldano Area, Southeastern Part of Volterra Basin, Tuscany, Italy
No full textSiliciclastic-carbonate sequences of Miocene grabens in northern Sardinia,Western Mediterranean Sea
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Sedimentology and tectonic evolution of selected Neogene-Quaternary basins of the Apennines (Italy)
No full textField Trip Guide Book P15, pp. 44. In: Guerrieri, L., Rischia, I. & Serva, L. (Series Eds). Field Trip Guide Books, 32nd International Geological Conference, Florence 20-28 Agosto 2004, Memorie Descrittive della Carta Geologica d'Italia, Vol. LXIII (4), from P14 to P36, APAT, Rom
Late Pleistocene costal systems of northwestern sardinia (italy): sandy beaches, coastal dunes and alluvial fans. Pre-congress field trip FT 1
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