Description

Located a few kilometers from the famous Etruscan finds of Vetulonia, Buriano is a small medieval village nestled between the green of beautiful and thick forests and the blue sky of the Maremma. Built around the tenth century as a feud of the Counts Aldobrandeschi to whom we owe the construction of the first defensive structures, Buriano later came under the dominion of the local family of Lambardi who controlled it until 1332, when they submitted to Siena who then gave it to the Pisans. In 1398, Buriano was conquered by the Appiani of Piombino, thus becoming part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1815. Among the main attractions to visit there is the Rocca Aldobrandesca, an ancient fortress from which it was possible to dominate the wet valley where once flowed the Lake Prile. Of the original structure of the castle, a complex with a polygonal base with a fortified enclosure and internal courtyard, today only the imposing ruins remain, some remains of the walls and an entrance door. The central square is instead the meeting point of the village and inside it stands the famous white monument dedicated to the fallen of the Great War. A visit to the Church of S. Maria Assunta, of Roman-Gothic foundation, with a rectangular plan and a trussed roof, is also highly recommended. Inside the church is preserved, in a silver embossed and chiseled reliquary, a relic (the arm) of S. Guglielmo, patron of the town. Every year, on the second Sunday of Easter, there is a procession in honor of the saint with the exhibition of his relic, which starts from the village and reaches the Hermitage (only 4 km away), built in 1597 in the place where the Madonna appeared to St. William, who took refuge here before founding the monastery of Malavalle.