Since the fourteenth century, the city has always been considered a getaway for members of the
upper class of Florence and, up to this day, Fiesole remains noted for its very expensive residential properties, just as well as its centuries-old villas and their formal gardens.[3] The city is generally considered to be the wealthiest and most affluent suburb of Florence. In 2016, the city had the highest median family income in the whole of Tuscany.[4]
Fiesole is a centre of higher education. The campus of the
European University Institute is situated in the suburb and uses several historical buildings including the Badia Faesolina and the Villa Schifanoia. Additionally, the American universities,
Harvard,[5]Georgetown,[6] and
Saint Mary's of Minnesota all maintain campuses at Fiesole.
History
Fiesole (
LatinFaesulae from the
EtruscanViesul, Viśl, Vipsul) was probably founded sometime during the ninth century BC, as it was an important member of the
Etruscan confederacy. The remains of its prehistoric walls and ancient structures have been preserved and an archaeological museum in the town presents artifacts from and information about these cultural periods.
The earliest known recorded mention of the town dates to 283 BC, when the Etruscan town, then known as Faesulae, was conquered by the
Romans. In Roman antiquity, it was the seat of a famous school of
augurs and, every year, twelve young men were sent there from Rome to study the art of divination.
The old town was either destroyed in the
Social War or alternatively by
Sulla in 80 BC, in reprisal for supporting the
populares faction in Rome.[7]Sulla later colonized it with veterans. This colony who afterward, under the leadership of Gaius Mallius, supported the cause of
Catilina.[8][9]
The Roman theatre, below the cathedral to the northeast, has 19 tiers of stone seats and is 37 yards (34 m) in diameter. It has been restored partially enough to provide a good idea of its structure. Above it is an embanking wall of irregular masonry, and below it some remains of Roman baths, including five parallel vaults of concrete. More than 1,000 silver
denarii, all coined before 63 BC, were found at Faesulae in 1829. A small museum contains the objects found in the excavations of the theatre.[10]
Fiesole was the scene of
Stilicho's great victory over the
Germanic hordes of the
Vandals and
Suebi under
Radagaisus in 406.[11] During the
Gothic War (536–553), the town was besieged several times. In 539,
Justin, the Byzantine general, captured it and razed its fortifications.
It was an independent town for several centuries in the early Middle Ages, no less powerful than Florence in the valley below, and many wars arose between them. In 1010 and 1025, Fiesole was sacked by the Florentines. Later, it was conquered by Florence in 1125, when its leading families were obliged to take up their residence in Florence. Dante reflects this rivalry in his Divine Comedy by referring to "the beasts of Fiesole" (Inferno XV.73).[12]
By the fourteenth century, rich Florentines had countryside villas in Fiesole, and one of them is the setting of the
frame narrative of the
Decameron.
Boccaccio's poem Il Ninfale fiesolano is a mythological account of the origins of the community.[13]
It is also documented that the artist and scientist
Leonardo da Vinci experimented for the first time with early flying models on the hills of Fiesoles.[14]
The Badia or ancient cathedral of St. Romulus, built in 1028 by Bishop Jacopo Bavaro with materials taken from several older edifices at the foot of the hill on which Fiesole stands and were supposed to cover the site of the martyrdom of St. Romulus. It contains notable sculptures by Mino da Fiesole; the old cathedral became a
Benedictine abbey that passed into the hands of the
Canons Regular of the Lateran. It once possessed a valuable library, long since dispersed. The abbey was closed in 1778
The little
Church of Santa Maria Primerana in the cathedral square, where the same saint was warned by Our Lady of his approaching death. Built in 996 and further expanded in medieval times, it has maintained the Gothic presbytery from that period. It received a new façade in the late sixteenth century, with graffito decoration by
Ludovico Buti. The interior, on a single hall, has a thirteenth-century panel portraying Madonna with Child. In the transept are two marble bas-reliefs by
Francesco da Sangallo and a terracotta from Andrea della Robbia's workshop.
Fontanelle, a villa near S. Domenico, where
St. Aloysius came to live in the hot summer months, while a page at the court of Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici
Mino da Fiesole, Florentine sculptor (
c. 1429—1484) and painter
Helen of Greece and Denmark, queen mother of Romania (was awarded the honorary title of Righteous Among the Nations in 1993 for her humanitarian efforts to save the Jews of Romania)
^Gaius Mallius was a colonist of Fiesole who, according to
Sallust (Bellum Catilinae 24.2), was the first to raise an army and take the field against Rome. His nomen is often confused with the more common Manlius.
^Radagaisus was executed 23 August 406 (Herwig Wolfram, Thomas J. Dunlap, tr., History of the Goths, 1988:169);
Paulinus of Nola attributed the victory of Stilicho over Radagaisus's Ostrogoths near Fiesole, to the protection of Felix, Peter, Paul and other saints.
^Dante in Love, A. N. Wilson, p. 71 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 2011)