Following the annexation of Grosseto to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Cosimo I de Medici entrusted Baldassarre Lanci with the construction of a new line of walls.
This new construction consisted in an hexagonal circuit of walls with six arrow-shaped bastions, which still characterize the look of the city centre.
Between 1565 and 1593 the construction of the walls progressed at a slow pace . The only gate granting access to the city was the fourteenth-century
Porta Cittadina, later renamed
Porta Reale (now
Porta Vecchia).
In 1754, as the walls were loosing their defensive function,
Porta San Pietro was opened again and has been since then called
Porta Nuova.
In the last years of his reign, the Grand Duke Leopoldo II had most of the walls demilitarised and the walkways along the walls converted into public gardens. Only the Fortress maintained military functions for some more decades.
Photogallery
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