Comune di Orciano Pisano

The castle of Ursiano, perhaps originally a fief of a family of Lombard origin, is attested in ancient Pisan parchments since the eighth century, preserved today in the Archiepiscopal Archives of Pisa. The castle was subsequently placed under the sovereignty of Pisa, and in 1313 it was joined to the Pieve di Scutriano. Dependent on the Vicariate of the Hills or Lari, it was a Pisan fiefdom granted to Pietro Caetani who sold it to Florence in 1405 in exchange for a large house in the city. In 1406 the Republic of Pisa was annexed to the Florentine one. In 1494, following the rebellion of Pisa against Florence, Orciano returned under the Pisan sovereignty with the nearby castles of Santo Regolo and Santa Luce. Several times lost and reconquered by the Pisans, until the Florentines prevailed and definitively defeated the Pisan army, thus stifling any autonomist ambitions. Reconquered by the Florentines, Orciano was set on fire and its fortifications dismantled. Detached from the vicariate of Lari, it passed under the Captaincy of Livorno and became an autonomous fief with the title of marquisate, conferred on April 19, 1630 to Roberto degli Obizzi of Padua. This remained until its last heir and its suppression in 1783, when it returned under the vicariate of Lari and subsequently to the podesteria of Rosignano Marittimo, as an autonomous community. From 1927 to 1957 the municipality of Orciano was merged with that of Santa Luce, forming the municipality of Santa Luce Orciano (km² 77; 3,571 inhabitants in 1951). The two municipalities were again divided in 1957.